150 Years Later, Army Signal Corps Still at Tech's Forefront

Starting with Albert Myer, who became the first-ever signal officer of the U.S. Army during the American Civil War, U.S. Army Signal Corps has been on the cutting edge of new technologies for the last 150 years. Back then, the chief order of business was implementation of a flag system Myer designed while working as an Army surgeon (and based on his medical dissertation.)

As CNET's Jon Skillings notes, Myers' military signaling system, referred to as "wigwag," was "a simple, almost binary, code: wave the signal flag to the left to represent "one" or wave it to the right to represent "two." Letters of the alphabet were then constructed from combinations of one and two. For instance, A was 22, B was 2112, and C was 121."

That was the 19th century. In the 21st century, the Corps. is still on the bleeding edge - this time when it comes to Internet technologies. One such project is an advanced backbone communications network that ties commanders and soldiers in the field back to headquarters, offering real-time monitoring and interaction of the battlefield.

As the Corps celebrates its sesquicentennial, our sister site CNET has put together a historical retrospective chronicling the changing technological challenges the Signal Corps has met - and overcome - during its first century and a half.