Tobyhanna Army Depot Celebrates a Century of Service Members News June 4, 2025 This June 14, the United States Army celebrates its 250th birthday, and Tobyhanna Army Depot is immensely proud to remain a leading readiness provider after more than a quarter of those years. Much like the Army is one year older than the nation it defends, the citizens of Tobyhanna and the surrounding community have been serving our nation before Tobyhanna Army Depot, or Tobyhanna Signal Depot as it was called at the time, opened its doors Feb. 1, 1953. The Army’s origins in Tobyhanna can be traced to 1912 when Maj. Charles P. Summerall leased more than 20,000 acres of land for a field artillery training site. In the 40 years prior to the depot beginning to officially serve the nation, the grounds of the installation went by several names and served our nation in several ways. Tobyhanna served as a tank and ambulance training center during World War I, artillery training center for over two decades, storage point for D-Day gliders, a camp for the Civilian Conservation Corps, a World War II prisoner of war camp, and a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers site. When Tobyhanna Signal Depot began serving the nation, its vital and lasting readiness and community impacts were felt immediately. Its proximity to ports and electronics manufacturers made it an ideal site for the nation’s first permanent Signal Corps depot on the east coast, and civilians eager to serve their nation applied in waves. Tobyhanna Army Depot, as it has been known since a 1962 Army-wide reorganization, is a global organization providing readiness for warfighters where and when they need it. On any given day, more than 15% of the depot’s 3,100-strong workforce is outside the gates to meet the needs of the joint warfighter with peak efficiency. Northeastern Pennsylvania’s largest industrial employer, Tobyhanna Army Depot creates 5,550 community jobs, employs a workforce of 24% veterans, and creates $2.4B of economic impact in the surrounding community which has advanced its mission for nearly a century. Over the course of serving the nation for seven decades, Tobyhanna has adapted to adhere to its mission. In a testament to proactive leadership and investment, a dynamic workforce of civilian patriots, and a vast portfolio of capabilities, Tobyhanna Army Depot has always answered the call of our nation’s warfighters in the ever-evolving world of warfighter readiness. Though the systems depot artisans work on may look dramatically different, Tobyhanna Army Depot’s mission has never wavered – providing the best value to our nation’s warfighters. Serving as the U.S. Army’s Center of Industrial and Technical Excellence for Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR), Electronics, Avionics and Missile Guidance and Control, Tobyhanna Army Depot has a long history of upping the standard for our nation’s warfighters through work on invaluable assets from shelters to tactical radios. Today, Tobyhanna Army Depot remains as well-positioned as ever to continue delivering on that promise with over $1B of investments into infrastructure modernization and investments into capabilities like unmanned aerial systems, cable fabrication, and the fifth C of C5ISR, cyber, that will ensure warfighter supremacy on the battlefield of the future. Tobyhanna Army Depot is proud to be a part of the Army’s story as it turns 250. Serving our nation and the warfighters who so selflessly protect it remains not just an objective, but a non-negotiable mission championed by a workforce and community united in warrior ethos and American pride. Here’s to the next 250 years!
