When Wayne and I took a trip to Washington, D.C. last year, I was blown away. I’d never been there before and didn’t really know what to expect. I sure wasn’t expecting to become so smitten with the place. It captured my heart and still has yet to let go. (I’m thinking it probably never will. I absolutely loved my visit there.)
The museums were all incredible. And something I thought was really neat was how I found a story about an animal detailed in almost all of them.
Animals Make Up Our History, Too
Like when we were in the Castle checking out the exhibit representations from the various Smithsonian museums. We came across a picture from 1888. It was a picture of postmen in Albany, New York.
Standing with them was a mongrel pup they’d adopted as their mascot. He followed the mail bags on the trains and the postal clerks marked his travels by putting medals and tags on his collar.
But the animal’s story that most impressed me was not one of a dog or cat. It was one I came across in a place I least expected to see animals even mentioned: the International Spy Museum.
It was the tale of Cher Ami, a very heroic carrier pigeon.
Yes, a Carrier Pigeon
This is what I learned at the Spy Museum about pigeons:
- Honing pigeons, or carrier pigeons, have been used to deliver messages during wartime for thousands of years.
- Carrier pigeons were particularly important during both World Wars. In World War I, they were used when field phones couldn’t be. In World War II, they were more reliable than radio communication.
- They carried messages and such via canisters attached to their legs, and were also often fitted with cameras used to gather intelligence.
- Of the hundreds of thousands of carrier pigeons sent through enemy lines, 95 percent completed their missions.
- Carrier pigeons served through the 1950s.
- Pigeons earned more medals of honor than any other animals enlisted in the U.S. military.
What Makes Cher Ami a Pigeon of a Different Feather
After learning all of the above, I was flabbergasted. Who would have thunk pigeons could make such brave soldiers? I wouldn’t have, and when I read about Cher Ami, I had to break out a tissue.
Cher Ami was a Black Check Cock carrier pigeon who served with the U.S. Army Signal Corps during World War I in France. (He was one of 600 carrier pigeons serving I might add.)
On what would be his last mission, Cher Ami sustained fatal injuries from enemy fire. He made it safely back to base camp, though, where his fellow human soldiers found the remains of a message in his battered leg canister.
The message was from Major Whittlesey of the 77th Infantry Division. His men became known as the “Lost Battalion” because they were separated from other American troops.
Because Cher Ami, injured as he was (he’d been both “shot through the breast” and had a shattered leg), still made it back to base with that message, 194 men’s lives were saved that otherwise would have been lost. The French acknowledged his heroics by awarding him the Croix de Guerre.
As you honor veterans this Veteran’s Day, also remember the unsung heroes. Our furry, four-legged, finned, feathered, and winged soldiers who do their part, too.
Courtney Mroch writes about animals great and small in Pets and the harmony and strife that encompasses married life in Marriage. For a full listing of her articles click here.
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