Posted By: Dave Gaddy on: 01/20/2010 05:49:00 EDTSubject: RE: Signal Corps or Signal Service?
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Posted By: Dave Gaddy on: 01/20/2010 05:49:00 EDT Subject: RE: Signal Corps or Signal Service? |
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Very good re-cap, Joe. And apprec the URL. I would add a comment about Southern (CSA) usage of the term. As of mid-1970s, I had seen the term, "signal service" used so rarely, that I opined that the abbreviation "S.S." on CSA cipher disks perhaps stood for "Secret Service," weird as that would seem. Took me a few more years to realize my error. I think that this ties in with the problem of identity for the SigC, PACS (or Milligan's Ind SigC). In an army in which State identification was all-important, "SC" instantly conjured up "South Carolina." There needed to be a different abbreviation, hence the use of Signal Service in the South, even before it rcvd the post-war US use. Your description of the term in both cases as "quasi-official" is apt. (Above also ties in with article I'm working on about CS insignia, and draws on info first brought to my attention a while back by Walt.) |
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