Fort Monmouth: The US Army’s House of Magic is a fantastic review of the beginning, development, key players, important events, social impacts, materiel developments by the scientists, and finally the closure of the base. Melissa Ziobro was the command historian of Fort Monmouth for many years until the closure. The book is a very easy, enjoyable read with chapters breaking the history into logical sections. The base was open from 1917 to 2011, ninety-four years, so it is impossible to capture everything in 180 pages. However, Ziobro covers the big topics with personal touches on the people and social aspects.
She opens with the history of the area that had been famous for horse racing and the building of the Monmouth Racetrack. This brought ferry lines and railroads to carry crowds to the races. However, political pressures soon after the racetrack opened forced the prohibition of gambling, which doomed the racetrack. The land went dormant until the US Army identified it as a training ground before World War I. During World War I, the Army gained control of the area to be the home of the new Signal Corps Laboratories and named it Camp Vail. The camp started with soldiers clearing brush that was a decade old and building tent areas to train Signal Corps personnel. The book also has a good section on the development and use of the Pigeon Corps and breeding program.
Ziobro covers the interwar periods of the base becoming permanent training developments, and its name change designed to recognize soldiers who fought at the local Battle of Monmouth in the American War of Independence. World War I had shown a need for better communications and meteorological equipment, so Fort Monmouth grew to work those projects with the first weather balloon launched in 1930; radar and the walkie-talkie also developed here. The radar system developed at Fort Monmouth was in use at Pearl Harbor on 6 December 1941 and detected the incoming Japanese aircraft. Ziobro does a great job infusing the personal stories of some of the key people—base commanders, politicians, etc.—not just their names but also their backgrounds to give the reader a feel of who they were and the experience to know them better. The Civilian Military Training Camp was established in 1920, and Fort Monmouth trained civilians for a month on military skills for potential commissions in the US Army Reserve.
During World War II, the Pigeon Corps expanded and there was the creation of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, with women joining the Signal Corps in 1942. The author goes into the social impact of women’s service defining their great contributions as well as the program to discredit and downplay their roles. As World War II grew, the base expanded rapidly and even rented a local town convention hall for use. The number of civilian positions greatly increased during the World War II time frame with a need for scientists and engineers. There was also an “enemy” increase during World War II with Italian prisoners housed at Fort Monmouth and details on the relations and work of these prisoners. During this time, advances were made in developing weather radar as well as bouncing radio signals off the surface of the moon, which later helped in the Apollo missions and satellite communication with Project Score. There were also advances in the development of solar cells—all from little Fort Monmouth! Project Paperclip, the relocation of German scientists after World War II, impacted Fort Monmouth that welcomed twenty-four of these scientists to help develop new technology.
During the Cold War, Fort Monmouth was often called the Country Club of the US Army with its great work, facilities, and location for families. It was critical in the Cold War because it was the first location to track Sputnik II, broadcasting President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 1958 Christmas broadcast around the world. Ziobro also outlines the darker side of the McCarthy era and Fort Monmouth. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg worked briefly at Fort Monmouth, so Sen. Joseph McCarthy carried out his investigations there hoping to uncover a communist spy ring at the base. Ziobro outlines who was investigated, the results, and the eventual finding of no spies. However, a lot of careers were ruined by the investigations.
Ziobro had a chapter dedicated to Dr. Walter McAfee and the integration of African American workers into the base, and how they were treated well on base but segregated off base. McAfee was also instrumental in developing several technologies such as a sensor for troop movements used in Vietnam that replaced dangerous soldier foot patrols. He was the project leader for the technology that bounced radio signals off the moon. He was active in the community high schools, advisor to NATO, faculty at Monmouth College, and one of the highest-ranking civilians in the new Army Materiel Command when it was formed in 1971. He has a building named after him at the US Army Communications and Electronics Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground, and a scholarship in his honor at Monmouth University.
During Vietnam, the Signal School moved to Fort Gordon, Georgia. The author explains the political sides of the move. The signal labs remained at Fort Monmouth. AN/PRC-25 Man-portable FM radios were developed and produced by Fort Monmouth and fielded to Vietnam with Gen. Creighton Abrams calling them “the single most important tactical items in Vietnam.” Counter mortar radar and night vision were also developed here. Post-Vietnam there were name changes, but the mission remained focused on signal and technology development.
The Desert Storm era saw the development of SINCGARS (Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System), ASAS (All-Source Analysis System), MCS (Maneuver Control System), and Guardrail, as well as the Mobile Subscriber System—the precursor to modern cell phones.
Fort Monmouth personnel responded to the events in New York City on 11 September 2001 with firefighters, decontamination, and explosive disposal. They also had technology designed to examine building stress in order to keep recovery personnel safe, and they had technology to help scan through rubble for survivors. Desert Storm produced translation devices and counter-improvised explosive device systems such as CREW and Warlock.
Ziobro finishes the book with a very good overview of the decision to close Fort Monmouth in 2011 in the Base Realignment and Closure Commission. She goes through the emotional and fiscal impact on the community and personnel who were asked to move to Aberdeen, Maryland, from New Jersey. She includes personal interviews of people involved in the planning of the move from either a personal or mission point of view.
She ends with a very poignant statement that every time people use a cell phone to check the weather or translate something or send a text, they should think of Fort Monmouth and the talented people who worked there. Most of the ideas and technology basics for these were first developed at Fort Monmouth. I highly recommend this book for any Signal Corps personnel of all ranks. It is a reminder of some of the key people who developed the Signal Corps, and who developed key technologies for the Army and for the Nation. I also recommend it for anyone interested in the history of central New Jersey.