Formation of the 2nd Signal Service Company
As the onset of WW-II approached the T/O of the 2nd Signal Service Company began to increase. On July 1, 1941, the strength of the Company was 135 EM and 3 Officers. Most of the increase was within the Washington DC area and the Presidio operation had been discontinued.
On December 27, 1941, the Signal Intelligence Service (SIS) became a division of the Operations Branch, OCSigO (Office of the Chief Signal Officer), but a few days later the Army Communications Service was created, and the SIS remained there throughout the war.
The SIS itself was broadly organized into these units in January, 1942:
| A | Administrative Major | Harold G. Hayes |
| B | Cryptanalytic Major | Harold Doud |
| C | Cryptographic Captain | Earle F. Cook |
| D | Laboratory Major | A. J. McGrail |
| Second Signal Service Company | Captain Robert Schukraft | |
The COMINT (Cryptanalytic) Unit B was divided into:
| B-1 | Japanese Major | Eric Evensson |
| B-2 | German Captain | Solomon Kullback |
| B-3 | Italian Captain | Abraham Sinkov |
| B-4 | French Lieutenant | H. F. Bearce |
| B-5 | Stenographic | Miss Louise Prather |
| B-6 | Traffic Captain | Robert Schukraft |
| B-7 | South America Lieutenant | Larry M. Glodell |
(Note the command relationship between Section B-6, Traffic, and the 2nd Signal Service Company – the unit intercepting the traffic.)
Further expansion of this structure was directed by the MIS (Military Intelligence Service) in April 1942. The MIS was created when the War Department was reorganized in March 1942. This action profoundly affected the SIS and military intelligence in general. By this general reorganization the old War Department arrangement, with chiefs of arms and services existing alongside the General Staff was swept away. The offices of the chiefs of infantry, cavalry and field artillery (and others) were abolished. The CSO and the OCSigO remained but they were now made subordinate to a huge new CONUS command, the Services of Supply, soon to be renamed the Army Service Forces (ASF). Its chief for the duration of the war was Lt. Gen. Brehon B. Somervell, a veteran Army engineer. Thus the Signal Corps lost its direct access to the Chief of Staff, and the SIS was placed under yet another layer of control.
Source: NSA publication titled “A History of U. S. Communications Intelligences during World War II: Policy and Administration, Series IV, Volume 8” dated 1997, Robert Louis Benson, Author.
Our thanks to Bob Zikowitz who did the research and previous publication of this information in his 2nd Signal Service Battalion quarterly newsletter.