Fort Monmouth in WWI
by Melissa Ziobro
The history of Fort Monmouth dates to just after the outbreak of WWI, when the Army leased land for a “temporary” Signal Corps training camp in Little Silver on the site of the old Monmouth Park Racetrack. The tract, though largely overgrown and full of poison ivy, nonetheless appealed to the Army because of its proximity to the port of embarkation in Hoboken and, more immediately, the rail terminal in Little Silver; stone roads dating to the Racetrack period; and access to water.
The first Signal Soldiers arrived at what would become Fort Monmouth in June 1917. Records show that this advance party brought tents, tools, and other equipment from Bedloe’s Island, New York, to prepare the site. They had soon cleared several acres on which they erected a “tent city” to include housing, quartermaster facilities, and a camp hospital.
The Army, perhaps a bit unoriginally, initially called the installation 
Camp Little Silver based on its location. General Orders dated 17 June 1917 named LTC Carl F. Hartmann the first commander. Additional troops poured in, and instruction of trainees began in July. Records show that the curriculum included “cryptography, the heliograph, semaphore, wig-wag, motor vehicle operation, physical training, dismounted drill, tent pitching, interior guard duty, map reading, tables of organization for signal, infantry, and cavalry units, camp sanitation, personal hygiene, first aid, and horseback riding.” The troops spent much of their “free” time clearing the area of undergrowth, repairing and extending roads, and digging drainage ditches. The Camp sent its first units to the port of embarkation in Hoboken on 7 August 1917.
The Army re-named the site Camp Alfred Vail on 15 September 1917, just three months after its establishment. Vail, an associate of the perhaps more infamous inventor Samuel F. B. Morse, helped to develop commercial telegraphy.
Wooden construction soon augmented the original tents, and the Army established a laboratory devoted to developmental work. Officials wanted this laboratory, housed in dozens of buildings, to be independent of the commercial laboratories with which they usually collaborated. Research and development facilities even included air fields, planes, and hangars for experiments in air to ground communication.
By the end of 1918, some dubbed the Camp the “best equipped Signal Corps camp ever established anywhere.” Just nineteen months after its acquisition by the military, well over one hundred semi-permanent structures had been built. Records show that this included housing for almost 3,000 soldiers and 200 officers. Should those men fall ill, a hospital stood equipped to handle forty patients. Two temporary stables could house up to 160 horses. Hard-surfaced roads facilitated transportation. Men converted one swamp into parade grounds, and another into four company streets that could be lined by 200 tents. The sudden growth of the camp brought to the area a prosperity not seen since the height of the Monmouth Park Racetrack’s popularity.
Between August 1917 and October 1918, the American Expeditionary Forces reportedly received five telegraph battalions, 
two field signal battalions, one depot battalion, and an aero construction squadron from Camp Alfred Vail. The laboratories had made significant contributions to radio communications and other technologies.
The Chief Signal Officer authorized the purchase of the Camp Vail in 1919. The “temporary” installation received permanent status and the name Fort Monmouth in August 1925. Until its closure in 2011, Fort Monmouth remained a base that trained men (and eventually women) in the defense of the nation and innovated technological advancements for both battlefield and civilian use. For more about the history of Fort Monmouth, to include videos, monographs, dozens of articles, and even archival material, see http://cecom.army.mil/historian/
Melissa Ziobro is currently the Specialist Professor of Public History at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, NJ, teaching courses to include Introduction to Public History, Oral History, and Museums and Archives Management. She serves as the Editor for NJ Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal. Melissa worked as a command historian at the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command, Fort Monmouth, NJ from 2004-2011. For additional details, please visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissaziobro
Posted 23 January 2017
