Columbus Barracks was an Infantry post, used for recruiting intake and some Infantry training. |
Five days later, on Christmas day, Dec. 25th, 1909, Vern was forwarded to the Signal Corps at |
Fort Omaha, Omaha, Nebraska. After three days, he arrived at Fort Omaha on Dec. 28th, 1909, |
where he was assigned to Signal Corps Company ‘H’, for training [Note 15. c., d.]. |
There are two photographs of Vern, in two different Army uniforms, both with the Signal Corps |
insignia on the sleeve. These pictures were probably made in the spring of 1910, before he went |
north to Alaska. There is no record of the photographer, date, nor place [Notes 8.b., 8.c. (images)]. |
While Vern was in training at Fort Omaha, Signal Corps regulations would have required him |
to master “three codes: the Myer [which uses a single flag or torch], the American Morse for |
ordinary telegraphy, and the Continental or International Morse for wireless and cable service”. |
Only later, in 1912, did the Army standardize on International Morse code as its general service |
code; and, in 1913, the Signal Corps closed its post at Fort Omaha, and the school for enlisted |
instruction moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. [Note 16.a. pg.143] |
Sometime in the middle spring, probably April, 1910, Vern would have started the 6-8 week trip |
to Fort Gibbon, Alaska; the Army service record shows that Vern was assigned to Signal Corps |
Company ‘K’ in Alaska, although the transfer was not recorded until after he was already there |
(it was recorded at the end of the spring quarter, on June 30th, 1910) [Note 15. d.]. |
In those days, the pre-embarkation ‘staging area’ for transfers to Alaska was the U.S. Army’s |
Vancouver Barracks, at Fort Vancouver, Vancouver, Clark County, Washington state, on the |
‘Lewis and Clark Expedition’ route, on the north bank of the mighty Columbia River, and directly |
across the river north of Portland, Oregon [Note 17]. Presumably, Vern would have come west |
to Portland by train, and then processed through Vancouver Barracks on his way north to Alaska, |
and then another 3 or 4 weeks at sea on the long Pacific ocean voyage north to Fort St. Michael. |
Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System (WAMCATS) |
On 9 February 1870 an Act of Congress authorized the Army to establish meteorological stations |
in the Alaska Territory, and the Chief Signal Officer, Brigadier General Albert Meyers, created the |
Army Weather Bureau, which eventually had over 90 stations in the Alaska Territory [Note 18]. |
In 1899, the War Department created the Department of Alaska, and established its headquarters |
at Fort St. Michael on Norton Sound [near the mouth of the Yukon River] [Note 16.a. p.106] |
As the gold rush to Alaska gained momentum at the tail end of the 1890's, the U.S. Army also |
deployed infantry units, to help maintain order. Posts were established at Fort Seward (Haines), |
Fort Liscum (Valdez), Fort Egbert (Eagle) [upriver on the Yukon River, near the Canadian border], |
Fort Gibbon (Tanana) [Yukon River, center of the Alaska Territory], Fort St. Michael (St. Michael) |
[on the south shore of Norton Sound], and Fort Davis (Nome) [north shore of Norton Sound]. |
Soldiers at these posts used skis for drills, patrols, recreation and for hunting for food [Note 21]. |
_________________________________________________________________________ |
McAninch Family History NL v.XX n.3 / July 2012 / Frank McAninch, Editor / page 2012-21 |