National Affairs: Honorable Discharge

Pigeons have been carrying messages ever since a water-locked Noah sent a dove out to bring tidings of land. Caesar, campaigning in Gaul, used pigeons to carry news of his exploits to Rome. In World War I a homing pigeon named Cher Ami, on duty with the famed Lost Battalion, braved gunfire from both the enemy and the Allies, flew 25 miles in 30 minutes with an urgent message for Allied gunners, arrived at his destination wounded in a leg and a wing, saved the battalion. In World War II a pigeon called G.I. Joe flew countless missions in the Mediterranean, saved a British brigade in Italy when he carried a message canceling a bombardment of Colvi Vecchia, which the British had entered ahead of schedule (the Lord Mayor of London gave Joe a medal). But last week the U.S. Army said pigeon go home. The Army grounded its 1,000 birds,* planned to sell most, give the rest to zoos. Reason: advances in electronic communication made them obsolete; they have been superseded by the vacuum tube.

Army pigeoneers—all nine of them—were angered by the news. There was not one chickenhearted, people-toed electronics messenger, they snorted, which could match the feats of wartime homing pigeons. Moreover, they said, electronic communications equipment can be jammed by the enemy; there are times and places, too, where such equipment cannot be used, e.g., in thick jungle areas, where wire-stringing is impractical.

As the Signal Corps pigeoneers at Fort Monmouth, N.J. got ready to sell their charges to private buyers, they held to one secret hope: one fine day all 1,000 well-trained birds would home into Fort Monmouth and settle daintily all over the electronics boys’ fancy antennas.

*The Army also announced that it would muster out the famed 4th Field Artillery Battalion (Pack), which, with its 125 horses and mules, was created in 1907 for mountain and jungle fighting, saw action in World War II (Burma, Italy). Replacing the Army mule: the experimental 4th Airphibious Field Artillery Firing Unit—a helicopter group.