{{Short description|Communications network in Alaska, 1900s-1960s}} {{about|the historical cable and telegraph system|the contemporary telecommunications company|Alaska Communications}} left|thumb|150x150px|Alaska Communications Systems (US Army Signal Corps) SSI 1954-1963 <ref>{{Cite web |date=January 22, 1954 |title=ALASKA COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM |url=https://tioh.army.mil/Catalog/Heraldry.aspx?HeraldryId=15216&CategoryId=9121&grp=2&menu=Uniformed%20Services |website=US Army Institute of Heraldry}}</ref> {{Use American English|date=October 2024}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}}
The '''Alaska Communication System''' ('''ACS'''), also known as the '''Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System''' ('''WAMCATS'''), was a system of cables and telegraph lines authorized by the U.S. Congress in 1900 and constructed by the U.S. Army Signal Corps. The communications lines were to serve both military and civilian needs in the territory of Alaska. By 1904, ACS comprised some {{convert|2100|mi|km}} of undersea cable, over {{convert|1,400|mi}} of land lines, and a wireless segment across at least {{convert|107|mi|km}}.<ref name="Answers">[http://www.answers.com/topic/washington-alaska-military-cable-and-telegraph-system Answers.com US Military Dictionary "Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System" WAMCATS]</ref> On 15 May 1936 WAMCATS was renamed the U.S. Army Alaska Communication System.<ref name="Global">[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/army/59sig.htm 59th Signal Battalion "Voice of the Arctic"]</ref> The Alaska Communication System remained under the control of the Army Signal Corps until 1962 when it was taken over by the U.S. Air Force. The ACS handled the radioteletype, radio telephone, 500 kHz ship-to-shore frequencies, collected communications intelligence, and other services for more than half a century in Alaska.<ref name="Archives">[https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/111.html Records of the office of the Chief Signal Officer]</ref>
The Army Signal Corps (which develops, tests, provides, and manages communications and information systems support for the command and control of all the U.S. armed forces) connected military posts with each other and with the rest of the continental United States. This system of thousands of miles of suspended landlines and submarine cable included the first successful long-distance radio operation in the world. The telegraph was also the first major contribution to Alaskan infrastructure provided by the U.S. federal government, marking the beginning of the government's central role in the development of Alaska.<ref name="HistoryCoop">{{Cite web |url=http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jga/6.4/jessup.html |title="Connecting Alaska: The Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System" by David Eric Jessup, University of Washington |access-date=2008-08-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081013213215/http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jga/6.4/jessup.html |archive-date=2008-10-13 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
At the start of the 20th century, when the United States was committing American troops to military engagements around the world, the Signal Corps in Alaska worked to make sure military communications could flow.<ref name="HistoryCoop"/> An important message, such as General MacArthur's World War II demand for the surrender of the Japanese, was received, automatically recorded as printed text and parallel punched holes on paper tape, and could then be relayed on to other stations.<ref name="MacArthur">[http://chs.cullmancats.net/message.htm "General MacArthur's Surrender Order To The Japanese", text by Janice Reynolds Cook, based on information provided by Charlie Burrow] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081005101812/http://chs.cullmancats.net/message.htm |date=2008-10-05 }}</ref>
The ACS also provided a vital lifeline to the many remote and almost inaccessible communities across Alaska: it enabled the icebound city of Nome to alert the outside world about a diphtheria outbreak which led to the successful 1925 serum run to Nome.
==History== At the beginning of the 20th century, Alaska was a cold and inhospitable place where travel, let alone news, took a month or more to happen. In 1870, Alaska had just recently been sold to America by the Russian Empire. In the U.S. that year, the U.S. Army Signal Corps began to establish isolated forts (meteorological stations) throughout the Western territories. These stations were usually not much more than cold, lonely huts occupied by a single telegraph operator or soldier.<ref name="MacArthur"/><ref name="Lineage">[http://www.usarak.army.mil/59internet/Lineage.htm US Army lineage of Signal Service in Alaska] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080621170300/http://www.usarak.army.mil/59internet/Lineage.htm |date=2008-06-21 }}</ref>
In 1900 the Congress appropriated nearly a half a million dollars for the purpose of establishing a land and underwater communications system connecting the various military posts in Alaska with the rest of the United States.<ref name="Global"/>
The communications system was operated by signal soldiers assigned to the depot companies at the various forts around Alaska. WAMCATS soldiers reported directly to the Chief Signal Officer of the United States Army.<ref name="Lineage"/>
Wired telephone poles eventually were put in place in Alaska, however, they were not reliable. One of the problems was that the heavy snow and ice typical in Alaska would cause the telephone poles to fall over, breaking the connections. During the winter there might be six feet of frozen snow that could topple poles.<ref name="AlaskaComm">[http://www.antiqueradios.org/gazette/acs.htm "The Alaska Communications System" by B. McCalley]</ref> Laying cable underwater would solve part of that problem, and would also help the military with ship to shore communications.
The first submarine telegraph cable laid by the United States Signal Corps was in the Philippines in 1899. Soon thereafter, underwater cable was first laid in Alaska in 1900, when the vessel CS ''Orizaba'' connected Unalakik to St. Michael and St. Michael to Safety Island, Cape Nome.<ref name="Atlantic">[http://www.atlantic-cable.com/CableCos/USMilitary/ "History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications: U.S. Armed Forces Cables" by Bill Glover]</ref>
Between 1900 and 1905, Army soldiers of the 59th Signal Battalion (also known as the "Voice of the Arctic") constructed a telegraph line linking the U.S. Army posts across Alaska with each other, including a {{convert|107|mi|km|sing=on}} wireless system crossing Norton Sound on the west coast of Alaska. In 1903 an underwater cable between Sitka, Alaska and Seattle, Washington was laid by USAT ''Burnside'',<ref>{{Cite news |date=29 August 1904 |title=Cable Connects Alaska And The States |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/830099269/?match=1&terms=alaska%20cable%20burnside |work=Daily Alaskan |pages=1}}</ref> allowing rapid communication between Alaska and the lower continental U.S.<ref name="Global"/>
By 1918, the 1st Signal Service Company was activated at Valdez, Alaska and 2nd Signal Service Company at Fort Gibbon to operate WAMCATS in Alaska. The 2nd Signal Service Company was not formally inactivated until 1927.<ref name="Lineage"/>
The vessel CS ''Dellwood'' undertook the laying of a new submarine cable in 1924 between Seattle and Alaska with a post at Ketchikan.<ref name="Atlantic"/>
In 1930 the Army built WVD radio station in west Seattle (Pigeon point), to communicate by wireless with Alaska stations as well as others in the Pacific.
From 1931 the Army Signal Corps did not own a cable ship and so the system deteriorated until the beginning of World War II in 1941.
The first submarine telephone cables were laid in 1956 with the Army cable ships ''Albert J. Myer'' and ''Basil O. Lenoir'' undertaking the work. The cable came ashore at around {{convert|40|mi|km|sing=on}} intervals.<ref name="Atlantic"/>
The ACS was transferred to the Air Force in July 1962.<ref name="Lineage"/> RCA purchased ACS for $31.5 million in 1970.<ref name="broadcasting19710118">{{Cite magazine |date=1971-01-18 |title=Hot Super Bowl contest targeted for Alaska fans |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1971/1971-01-18-BC.pdf |magazine=Broadcasting |page=55}}</ref>
==U.S. Army cable ships== [[File:"Reflections U.S. cable ship "Burnside" in Wrights' Sound. Taken from the deck of L.Q.R.R. boat 'Princess May', both... - NARA - 297779.jpg|thumb|300 px|right|U.S. cable ship ''Burnside'' in Wright Sound]] *CS ''Orizaba'' *CS ''Hooker'' *CS ''Romulus'' *CS ''Burnside'' *CS ''Liscum'' *CS ''Cyrus W. Field'' *CS ''Samuel Mills'' *CS ''Joseph Henry'' *CS ''Dellwood'' *CS ''Silverado'' *''Col. William. A. Glassford''<ref group=note>The "prefix" USASPB associated with the vessel is an error. The Army's designation of self propelled barges was Barge, Self Propelled (BSP). Smaller vessels simply had the designation "U.S. Army" and a number without being named. Some vessels were named but also bore the usual Army identification. The use can be seen in this [https://atlantic-cable.com/Cableships/WilliamAGlassford/Glassford.jpg photo of ''Col. William. A. Glassford''] in which "U.S. Army" is followed by "B.S.P. 2008" with ''Glassford'' underneath on the hull.</ref> *CS ''Basil O. Lenoir'' *CS ''Albert J. Myer'' *{{ship|USACS|William H. G. Bullard}} *CS ''Ellery W. Niles''
==U.S. Navy cable ships== *{{USS|Aeolus|ARC-3|6}} *USS ''Thor'' *{{USS|Portunus|ARC-1|6}} *USS ''Yamacraw'' *{{SS|Arthur M. Huddell}}
== Footnotes == {{reflist|group=note}}
==See also== * Mount Billy Mitchell (Chugach Mountains)
==References== {{Reflist|2}}
* Commercial and Government radio stations of the U.S. 30 June 1930, page 117 * Army and Navy journal, August 16, 1947, Page 1337 * War in the Pacific and East Asia 1941-1972, page 36/37, call sign appendix ACAN stations
==External links== * [http://vilda.alaska.edu/cdm4/results.php?CISOOP1=exact&CISOFIELD1=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOROOT=all&CISOBOX1=Washington-Alaska%20Military%20Cable%20and%20Telegraph%20System Photos of WAMCATS stations] * [https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=V7s3AQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA3 General Information regarding the Territory of Alaska 1912] {{DEFAULTSORT:Alaska Communications System (Acs)}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080401001323/http://www.history.army.mil/books/30-17/S_3.htm From the Tropics to the Arctic] Category:Communications in Alaska Category:History of telecommunications in the United States Category:Military communications of the United States Category:Military radio systems of the United States Category:World War II American electronics Category:Communications in Washington (state) Category:1900s establishments in the United States