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On this episode of Our American Stories, during World War I, carrier pigeons were woven into the U.S. Army’s communication system. When phone lines were cut and runners could not cross open ground, messenger pigeons carried handwritten notes over smoke and shellfire. At one point in the war, an American unit was pinned down by its own artillery. Cut off and taking heavy losses, the men turned to a wounded homing pigeon that had been trained to fly back to its loft. That small bird became their final line of communication.

Frank Blazich of the National Museum of American History tells the tale of how pigeons entered modern military service and how one battered carrier pigeon altered the course of a battlefield in World War I.

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When a Messenger Pigeon Stopped Friendly Fire in World War I

Our American Stories

When a Messenger Pigeon Stopped Friendly Fire in World War I