Camp Edison, New Jersey – Signal Corps. Training (Original Photo framed for preservation)
In 1944, a young American soldier reported for duty at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, home of the United States Army Signal Corps.
Fort Monmouth served as the center of military communications training during the Second World War. The Signal Corps was responsible for maintaining the vast network of radios, radar systems, signal lines, and coded transmissions that allowed Allied forces to communicate across battlefields and oceans. Without these systems, armies could not coordinate movement, strategy, or survival.
Selected for specialized training, my father was sent from Fort Monmouth to Yale University, where the Army had established an intensive engineering program to prepare Signal Corps personnel for the technical demands of modern warfare.
Inside classrooms normally reserved for scholars and engineers, young soldiers studied the science of communication systems that would soon be used in the largest military operations the world had ever seen.
These men were being prepared not only to fight a war, but to keep the war connected. Soon after completing his training, my father received his orders. Like thousands of other young Americans of his generation, he would depart from Boston Harbor, crossing the Atlantic toward a continent already engulfed in war.
Ahead lay uncertainty, danger, and the beaches of Normandy.
Among the few personal belongings he carried with him was a small memorandum book. Within its pages he would quietly record the journey that was about to begin.
My father’s little pocket Memorandum book he carried on him throughout the war
The first entries of that journal mark the opening steps of a story that would eventually lead not only through war, but toward the life he would build after returning home. The timeline of his journey began on “October 31, 1944. The young soldier left Boston Harbor, destination unknown.”
Memorandum Entry
The Memorandum 1944 – First Entry
October 31 – Left Boston Harbor. Destination unknown.
Nov. 7- Arrived in England. Disembarked at Liverpool, boarding the LMS Train to Hereford.
Nov 23 – Left Hereford and arrived at South Hampton (continuation back of page) and boarded the British ship the “Cheshire”. Spent Thanksgiving day and 3 more aboard the “Cheshire”.
The Artifact
The first entry in the memorandum before shipping out from Boston Harbor
Before leaving the United States for Europe, my father completed the War Department form on January 25, 1944 while assigned to the Army Training Schools at YALE UNIVERSITY in New Haven, Connecticut. The document ensured that his wife (my mother) would receive financial support while he served overseas. Today it remains a small but powerful record of he quiet responsibilities carried by young soldiers preparing to leave home for war.
Artifacts from the War Department – January 1944
Archival Document: War Department Family Allowance Application Army Training Schools –
Yale University January 25, 1944
¹ Historical Note
The photograph above is an original wartime training photograph preserved among my father’s personal papers. The inscription at the bottom of the image reads:
“GB3 Team – Co. A – Camp Edison, N.J. – September 6, 1944.”
Camp Edison was part of the U.S. Army Signal Corps training network associated with Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, which served as the Army’s primary center for communications training during the Second World War.
The United States Army Signal Corps was responsible for maintaining battlefield communications for Allied forces, including radio systems, field telephones, radar, and signal lines connecting military units across the battlefield. These systems formed the communications backbone that allowed commanders to coordinate troops, logistics, and operations across Europe.
**This photograph represents a group of Signal Corps trainees preparing for deployment during the final year of the war.
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