Fort Monmouth: The U.S. Army's House of Magic

Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, was established in 1917 as a training camp for signal troops during World War I. It was named after the soldiers of the American Revolution who fought and died at the nearby battle of Monmouth. The site was overgrown and infested with poison ivy, but it offered advantages such as proximity to the port of Hoboken and a train station, good stone roads, and access to water. The Army Signal Corps carved a camp out of the wilderness and trained thousands of men for war there. The Signal Corps also built laboratories that worked on pioneering technologies, such as air to ground radio. The base was supposed to be temporary, but it wound up outliving the war and becoming known as the "Home of the Signal Corps." The US Army Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM) and Netflix, the sites next owner, have a powerful legacy to live up to. Fort Monmouth was the birthplace of innovation and technological revolution and the home of a uniquely diverse group of military and civilian heroes and scientists.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 15 May 2024
Publisher: Casemate Publishers

Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, has a rich history dating back to May 1917 when the Army authorized four training camps for signal troops. One of these camps, located in central New Jersey, was named "Fort Monmouth" in honor of the soldiers who fought and died at the nearby battle of Monmouth during the American Revolution. The camp was situated on the site of an old racetrack and luxury hotel, remnants of the Gilded Age at the Jersey Shore. Despite its overgrown and infested with poison ivy, the site offered significant advantages, including proximity to the port of Hoboken and a train station, good stone roads, and access to water. Corporal Carl L. Whitehurst was among the first men to arrive at Camp Little Silver, and he recalled the site as a "jungle of weeds, poison ivy, briars, and underbrush." The Army Signal Corps carved a camp out of that wilderness and trained thousands of men for war there. The Signal Corps also built laboratories that worked on pioneering technologies, such as air-to-ground radio, from their inception. Though the base was supposed to be temporary, it wound up outliving the war and became known as the "Home of the Signal Corps." It was for decades the center of innovation in communications and electronics advances in military history. The US Army Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM), which left Fort Monmouth in 2011, can trace its roots to the establishment of the Signal Corps training camp and research and development laboratory at Fort Monmouth in 1917. Netflix, the sites next owner, has a powerful legacy to live up to. From celebrity homing pigeons to the radars that detected the incoming Japanese planes, Fort Monmouth has played a significant role in military history.

Weight: 364g
Dimension: 153 x 228 x 21 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781955041225