The Prescott daily news., 1920-05-20
BIRDS WON HONOR
Pigeons Certainly Did Iheir
 Bit" in the Great War.
Achievements Acknowledges te Be Worthy of Mention in Reoords-- Thouszncs cf Lives Saved by
 Messages They Carried.


 Membership in the A- P. S Is military honor % mere man may achieve.
 The A. P. s stands for the American pigeon service of the United States army.
 When the history of the greatest of all wars Is written these American birds Ein have their names in the annals
 Ii will be told how the Huns were organized into shotgun squads to kill the winged messengers. but bow se per cent of them outdIstanced the bull lets and -h0med~ with messages thai enabled American artillery 10 locate and silence the enemy guns. to destroy trains of the foes ammunition and to save thousands Of American lives by achievements and timely rescues-
 ~Heavfer-than-aIr" planes were not rhe only ones who sailed abcve the enemy's heads. The army signal corps had 10000 pigeons overseas. and i0OSn Fn America tc 5e sent if they were needed Birds carried 41S message Of incsIculsbIe importance and as times when all other means of com nlunication were unavailable
 .'The Mocker,r with his eye destroyed by piece of shrapnel and his head weller of clotted blood homed h splendid time on the morning of Sep tember 12. 8 few minutes after o'clock In thick fog and heavy rain
 Never faItering. he bore tidings Of particularly important objective reached and gave the location of ser eraI of the enemy's heavy barferies s hich were doing terrible execution or The advancing American troops.
 With the information American ar liilerymen were able to silence the ..uemy's guns within 20 minutes The
 fncker's wounds were dressed. he re covered and Is now in the loft in Pc tonae park.
 No less valiant Is the record of President Wilson a huge blue bird nf wonderful vitality and rapidity of flight. So gsllag was his work dur ing the operations of the tanks on the Sf sfihiei front that he received the cornmendafion Of the signal officer of the first corps He was then trans ferred to the Meuse-Argonne sector.
 On the morning of November 5 through heavy rain and fog. and with leg shot of. the big blue arrived at his loft with an important message. This was his second flight on this front and he made over % kilometers (121z miles) in 21 minutes President Wilson" also recovered and Is now in the Hall of Honor of the American pigeon service.
 Perhaps the most heroic bird thai died on the American front was "Cher Amf." He carried tremendously fm- porfant message from Grand Pre-. on the Argonne. over g miles Of hills and daIes. to his loft in Rampont-
 He shot up from behind the Ameri- can breastworks like a rocket His psgeoneer saw him falter and f1utter In the air moment, recover. poise in mid-air for a second and then. like nash Of light, shoot away with his head pointing homeward.
 At Rampont straight out of the sky Ike plummet he dropped. striking his loft breast first. Sergt- Kockler. his trainer. found the message tube was hanging from the fragments of his leg. and he had hole in his breast "Cher Ami" died from his wounds and his body Is mounted in the Smithsonian institute
 Perhaps the busiest bird 'on the American front was Spike Spike" Is the color of the sky. flies like greased lightning and eIuded the Boche bullets. He delivered g important messages. never made mistake and didn't get a scratch. He. too. is back in Washington.
 No. 6T552 has no name yet As far as is known. he was the only German bird captured alive He waS taken hy the Americans in the Sf. Afihlel drive snd Is nov assaciaiing with the Amer ican pigeons in Peiomae park.