The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-01-06
With
The AEF

.
Kenneth L. Dixon, is written
today from the Pacific area
by William L. Worden.)
BY WILLIAM L. WORDEN
HILO, Hawaii, Jan. 9Th.
lieutenant riding transport plane
between islands said his name was
Joseph Hegar, and that he was
from Temple, Tex.
IT, he said, lam a Pioneer
He explained that a Pigeoneer
is, strangely enough, man who
knows something about pigeons:
and that there is whole com.
pany of Pigeoneers in this area.
complete with pigeons, which gain
honor by flying straight home
and can sometimes avoid dis.
grace-if they aren't good fliers
themselves-by producing b1oods
of young and willing pigeons. This
business of avoiding disgrace is
important to an army pigeon. be-
cause disgrace is another term for
getting your neck wrung.
Some of the details:
The Army has no trouble keen.
ing it's pigeon companies (attach.
ed to the Signal Corps full Of
men. because the rooftops of New
\ York and other places produce
good many more pigeon fanciers
for Army service than the com.
panies need. Thus, almost all Of
the men in pigeon companies are
more or less technical experts, al.
though the companies have no
| special ratings to compensate the
men for being experts. Their only
reward is that they get chance
to. pursue their hobby, more or
less, while in army service.
Army pigeons are carefully
bred, for half a dozen qualities.
Among them are physical stamina
to make long. difficult flights with
messages tied to their legs, single
mindedness which makes them fly
straight home without stopping Oft
for bit of lunch {wiere they
might be captured by the enemy
and their messages LOST, speed.
and in the lieutenant own
words brains
We put pigeon through a
very tough training course" lieu
tenant Hegar said IF he gets
through, we know he is tough
enough to bring in the messages
almost without fail. If he doesn't
pass - we'll, he usually doesn't
come back at all, so there is no
further question. If he comes wan
dering in so late that he has funk
ed, we kill him." (Note to soldiers;
So a G. I. training course is tough,
Huh? How would you like to be a
pigeon.")
Pigeons average something like
As miles an hour, the lieutenant
said, pointing out that this is fig
ured on crow-flight course,
which in island country like the
Hawaiian group is likely to be
less than half the distance by road.
Hegar also pointed out that a
two-way pigeon post can be estab-
lished. This is done very simply,
although it sounds like dirty
trick on the pigeon. A group of
birds is trained to live in a GER
tain place. Each flier has his
family and his roost there-but the
Army never feeds him except at
the other post. AS the bird grows.
this idea gets implanted in his
head so that he automatically flies
over to the dining room - which
may be so or 100 miles away
as soon as he is let out of his
cage in the morning. After he has
eaten, he flies home again. The
fact that he may be called on tc
carry a message each way each
day apparently does not bother
him at all.
The lieutenant was philosophical
about the place of pigeons il {
modern Army. We never have
any trouble convincing World Wa
One officers that pigeons are
worth while" he said. 'They re
member what the birds did il
France too well. But lot of the
new ones have to be convinced.
know one who was told about the
pigeon company and immediately
declared, well, that's one form OF
communication I never expect to
USE But less than two weeks later
something happened to his radio
network: and the first thing we
knew, he was raising hell because
we couldn't get the pigeons over
to him fast enough.