The Corps of Signals celebrated its 91st Corps Day. This day is celebrated by the Corps to commemorate the establishment of first Signals unit borne out of ‘Sappers and Mines’ in the year 1911. The Corps of Signals has a glorious history with many achievements in World Wars I and II and during operations in 1947, 1962 and 1971. It also earned laurels during operations Pawan Rakshak, Bajrang and Vijay.

The Signals has come a long way from the era of World War-II type of communication equipment which included heavy line equipment, morse code and bulky and unreliable radio sets. It now carries state-of-the-art communications. When communi-cation networks were not even being talked about, the Signals developed Army Switched Communication Network (ASCON). The new concepts were realised through indigenous R&D and India became the third country to use field networked communication systems successfully. ASCON and AREN are now the building blocks of strategic and operational communications. Keeping pace with the advancement in technology, Signals developed the next generation communication systems for Indian Army.

Army is the first organisation to go for diversification of exchanges and bring state-of-the-art technology in switchboards, telephones and radio. The revolution in information technology has further provided the opportunity for convergence, and Signals has been working towards achievement of this goal in the near future.

The importance of keeping men in touch with their families needs no emphasis and since operation Vijay, a lot has been done in the field of welfare communication—STD, PCO, village public telephones and subsidised STD calls, to mention just a few.

The Signals continues to strive for excellence in the field of military communication and has kept pace with the modern armies in the world. The future battlefield throws up the challenges of transparency, high speed digital information exchange and non-hierarchical, networked, secure and reliable communication. The nation is assured of all these from the Signals.

The Corps of Signals has also provided outstanding officers at the highest level of the military hierarchy. This included officers who had been the harbingers of a whole range of new communication technology and innovative concepts in the Army and leaders who commanded the field formations with impeccable professionalism and leadership qualities. While much is known and written about those in the former category, the contribution by the latter is generally less known.

Between 1963 and 1991, fourteen Signal officers commanded field formations ranging from brigade to field army. The list of such officers included Lt Gens AN Mathur,
K Balaram, Gowrishankar, S S Brar, Maj Gen R Z Kabraji, S N Antia, H S Kier, D N Khurana, HK Bajaj, Brigs E N Ramadass, KPG Kurup, PK Ghosh, B S Bhagat and Ajit Singh. The level of their contribution can be gauged from the fact that most of them got the call of duty to command field formations during active operations. Almost half of them are decorated with gallantry awards during various operations. They have displayed highest level of professional and academic excellence. Ten out of twelve of these Field Formation Commanders rose to the next higher rank whereas two rose to the level of Field Army Commanders. Lt Gen AN Mathur commanded Southern Army and Lt Gen K Bairam rose to the rank of VCOAS.

The saga of their prowess in command of field formation in actual operations proves beyond any doubt the ‘dual’ capability of Signallers as facilitators for niche technology induction as well as leaders of men in combat. Today, as Armed Forces become more dependent on the convergence technologies and network dominance, it is time to make optimum utilisation of the Corps of Signals.

These communicators and Commanders have been awarded one Ashok Chakra, 26 Param Vir Chakra, two Mahavir Chakra, one Kirti Chakra, 56 Ati Vishisht Seva Medals, two Vir Chakra, one Shaurya Chakra, 82 Sena Medals, 95 Vishisht Seva Medals with one Bar-to-Vishisht Seva Medal, two Vishisht Seva Medals and 219 Mention in Despatches. The Signallers are also proud recipients of one Padamshri, two Arjuna awards and one National Adventure award. The ‘Dare Devils’ have their record etched in the Guinness Book and recently their Aarohi mountaineering expedition has entered in the Limca Book of Records.