Seeking records of Army Signal "A" Corps during WWI

Dear Mr. Rouleau,

Thank you for posting your request on History Hub!

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In this case, “A” is a modifier of Detachment, not Signal Corps.  The information you are sharing indicates that his unit as the Meteorological Detachment A.  There would have been multiple detachments with different detachments indicated by letters. There was only one Signal Corps.  The Signal Corps fulfilled many different functions, and at that time, meteorology was one of them.  Therefore, meteorological detachments were Signal Corps units, and many of the personnel assigned to them were part of the Signal Corps.

We searched the National Archives Catalog and located Reports Concerning the Distribution of Signal Corps Units, 2/1918 - 10/1918 in the Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer (Record Group 111); Records Relating to the History of the War Department, 1918 - 1941 in the Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs (Record Group 165); and

and World War I Strength Returns, ca. 1917 - 1939 in the Records of the Adjutant General's Office, 1917 - 1985 (Record Group 407) that may include records relating to this unit.  For more information, please contact the National Archives at College Park - Textual Reference (RDT2) at Archives2reference@nara.gov.

Next we located 7 record series of the Garden City Air Services Depot in the Records of the Army Air Forces (Record Group 18). For more information, please email the National Archives at New York (RE-NY) at newyork.archives@nara.gov.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and pursuant to guidance received from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), NARA has adjusted its normal operations to balance the need of completing its mission-critical work while also adhering to the recommended social distancing for the safety of NARA staff. As a result of this re-prioritization of activities, you may experience a delay in receiving an initial acknowledgement as well as a substantive response to your reference request from RDT2 & RE-NY. We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your understanding and patience.

Lastly, you may wish to contact the US Army Center of Military History, the US Army Heritage and Education Center, the U.S. Army Signal Corps Museum, the US Army Signal Center Command Historian, the National Museum of the United States Army, and the Air Force Historical Research Agency.

We hope this is helpful. Best of luck with your family research!