Signal Corps Pigeon Service

Trained and dispatched homing pigeons to carry combat messages when radio failed, was jammed, or wasn't survivable.

The Story

Peak strength in WWII: 3,150 soldiers and 54,000 birds, >90% message-delivery rate. Pigeon G.I. Joe is credited with saving ~100 British soldiers in Italy in October 1943 by canceling an air strike with minutes to spare. When the service shut down, the 15 surviving "hero pigeons" went to zoos; the rest were sold to the public for $5 a pair.