re: Pictures from days gone by....

Ardis Wells and her Rhythm Ranch Gals



SLAP THAT BASS!

Don't tell me to stay home

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Cher Ami, Heroic WWI Pigeon

At about this time in 1918, Americans launch an attack at Cantigny, France. That World War I conflict is notable, in part, because it marked an early use of homing pigeons as a means of military communication.

Did you know that a pigeon can fly as fast as 110 miles per hour, with the boost of a tailwind? They can also fly hundreds of miles at a time. Understandably, then, the United States Army Pigeon Service had approximately 600 pigeons that served during World War I.

The best known of these was a black check cock homing pigeon named Cher Ami. That feisty bird is credited with saving nearly 200 men in the so-called Lost Battalion during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in World War I.

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Pat?

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At about this time in 1918, Americans launch an attack at Cantigny, France. That World War I conflict is notable, in part, because it marked an early use of homing pigeons as a means of military communication.

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Thanks for this post so very much! My mother's uncle, Brooks C. Bowles, was awarded the Silver Star for his actions at Cantigny in late May of 1918. He rescued his severely wounded company commander from where he was stranded in the open, running across open ground through heavy enemy gunfire, according to the citation. HIs company commander was Major Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. who, years later, would lead the American landing at Utah Beach on D-Day 1944 as Brigadier General Roosevelt.

The Battle of Cantigny was the first AEF led combat of the Great War, but is often forgotten in the front stories of history.

You rock, Kafka!

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Cher Ami

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How did they train them to do the job, over such long distances, accurately? That's amazing.

We had jalousies growing up.

Jalouises: Stay the hell away from me.

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