Signal CorpsSignal Corps Training Center, Camp Crowder, MissouriSignal Corps

Getting the Message Through, A Branch History of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, Chapter VII, World War II: Establishing the Circuits of Victory

by Rebecca Robbins Rainsy

To handle the wartime flood of personnel, the Signal Corps opened a second replacement training center in February 1942 at Camp Crowder, Missouri, near the town of Neosho in the southwestern corner of the state.

Camp Crowder now received most of the Army's signal recruits, including those entering through the Affiliated Plan, who traveled there to receive basic training.

Recruits spent three weeks learning the basics of soldiering: drill; equipment, clothing, and tent pitching; first aid; defense against chemical attack; articles of war; basic signal communication; interior guard duty; military discipline; and rifle marksmanship.

In July 1942 the Midwestern Signal Corps School opened its doors at Camp Crowder, with a capacity of 6,000 students, and the following month the Corps' first unit training center also opened there. The headquarters established in October 1942 to administer this group of schools was designated the Central Signal Corps Training Center.

Overview: the Signal Corps in World War II

by George Raynor Thompson

Signal units by the hundreds were activated — companies and battalions for operations and construction as in former wars, and also new and previously unheard-of types, such as aircraft-warning companies and battalions (for radar-warning services to the Army Air Forces), and radio-intelligence and SIAM companies to support the Signal Corps' large radio security and intelligence responsibilities. Then there were JASCOs, — joint-assault signal companies — created to meet the amphibious-assault communications needs of joint Army/Navy operations.

Unit requirements were so pressing, and often arose so suddenly, that students were taken out of the schools, their course work incomplete, to fill requirements in signal companies and battalions. These units were trained more in huge unit training centers, especially at Camp Crowder, or they continued training in assignments overseas, on the job.

(emphasis added)

General Information

Map Map of Camp Crowder
Cover A Camera Trip Through Camp Crowder, Missouri (PDF formatted for Adobe Reader 7.0 or higher)

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Grill
Roman Grill
The map and magazine are from the collection of the late Roman Grill. Roman Grill trained as Camp Crowder in 1943. He served in 16th Fighter Control Squadron, 6th United States Army Air Force, Albrook Field, Panama Canal Zone. His grandson and great-grandson shared these items.
Grill
Roman Grill at Camp Crowder

Cover A Rookie in Crowder by Pvt. Ned Eller, 1942. Souvenir booklet of basic training in thirteen comic strips.

This is a scan of a copy of “A Rookie at Crowder” rescued from a garage sale by Chris McCluer of Mission, Kansas. He recognized that veterans and their families would appreciate its depiction of World War II Army basic training and donated it to the Signal Corps section of this family history web site.


Training at Camp Crowder by John P. Redmond of Co. A., 49th Signal Heavy Construction Battalion.
Felix A. Cizewski & Camp Crowder

manual
Manuals, Pamphlets and Other Items

Dated before or during Felix A. Cizewski's training at Camp Crowder

Units
27th Signal Training Battalion
Company D
Roster:

Text

PDF
28th Signal Training Battalion
Company D
Personnel

4th Platoon 1551 (1945)
29th Signal Training Battalion
Company A
Roster

Text

PDF
33rd Signal Training Battalion
Eighth Regiment
Company D's Christmas Day, 1942 Program and Menu including roster.

Source: Trainee Martin W. Webber's son Tom
Training Unit Yearbook Common Pages



93rd Signal Battalion
Organization Day Program and Menu

Acknowledgement:

Scanning and formatting of Camp Crowder Unit Yearbook Common and Unit Pages was done by Kirk Gustafson
of WW2 Signal Corps Reenactors, Researchers, and Collectors Worldwide

Website
Our Camp Crowder related pages are dedicated to the memory of Private Armon Kalashian who died in 1943 while in training at Camp Crowder.
  All material not in the public domain © 2010 - 2019 Leonard H. Cizewski

Last Major Update:December 16, 2019
Minor Revision or Correction: July 6, 2021
Last Reviewed:
Posted: August 11, 2011

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.WebPage Acknowledgement:

Scanning and formatting of Camp Crowder Unit Yearbook Common and Unit Pages was done by Kirk Gustafson
of WW2 Signal Corps Reenactors, Researchers, and Collectors Worldwide


Website