Cher Ami Selfless Service To Humanity: Learn From Pigeonpost -By Bamidele Williams

Bamidele Williams

Always referred to as the oldest and the most sophisticated among the natural means of delivering messages and a method of communication. Pigeon post is the use of specially trained pigeons to carry messages over cities before the advent of telegraphs and radios.

With an amazing ‘Velocity’ taking only 50 minutes and averaging 125 kmph (only 40% slower than a modern aircraft!); the speed of this naturally endowed bird can never be underestimated and have been used to carry messages for at least 5000 years.

Pigeons can fly between 600 and 700 miles in a single day, with the longest recorded flight in the 19th century taking 55 days between Africa and England and covering 7000 miles in delivering and receiving a message.

There are many theories about how pigeons manage to return ‘home’ when released 100s of miles from their loft. A champion racing pigeon can be released 400-600 miles away from its home and still return within the day. This amazing feat does not just apply to ‘racing’ or ‘homing’ pigeons; all pigeons have the ability to return to their roost. A 10-year study carried out by Oxford University concluded that pigeons use roads and motorways to navigate, in some cases even changing direction at motorway junctions. Other theories include navigation by use of the earth’s magnetic field, visual clues such as landmarks, the sun and even infrasounds (low frequency seismic waves). Whatever the truth, this unique ability makes the pigeon a very special bird.

Pigeons are considered to be one of the most intelligent birds on the planet and able to undertake tasks previously thought to be the sole preserve of humans and primates. The pigeon has also been found to pass the ‘mirror test’ (being able to recognise its reflection in a mirror) and is one of only 6 species, and the only non-mammal, that has this ability. The pigeon can also recognise all 26 letters of the English language as well as being able to conceptualise. In scientific tests, pigeons have been found to be able to differentiate between photographs and even differentiate between two different human beings in a photograph when rewarded with food for doing so.

Cher Ami (French two words meaning “Dear Friend”) was a homing pigeon who had been donated by the pigeon fanciers of Britain for use by the U.S. Army Signal Corps in France during World War I. She helped save the Lost Battalion of the 77th Division in the Battle of the Argonne , October 1918.

On October 3, 1918, Major Charles White Whittlesey and more than 500 men were trapped in a small depression on the side of the hill behind enemy lines without food or ammunition. They were also beginning to receive friendly fire from allied troops who did not know their location. Surrounded by the Germans, many were killed and wounded in the first day and by the second day, just over 200 men were still alive. Whittlesey dispatched messages by pigeon. The pigeon carrying the first message, “Many wounded. We cannot evacuate.” was shot down. A second bird was sent with the message, “Men are suffering. Can support be sent?” That pigeon also was shot down. Only one homing pigeon was left: “Cher Ami”. She was dispatched with a note in a canister on her left leg,

” We are along the road parallel to 276.4. Our own artillery is dropping a barrage directly on us. For heaven’s sake, stop it.”

As Cher Ami tried to fly back home, the Germans saw her rising out of the brush and opened fire. For several moments, Cher Ami flew with bullets zipping through the air all around her.
Cher Ami was eventually shot down but managed to take flight again, higher and higher beyond the range of the enemy guns. The little bird flew 25 miles in only 25 minutes to deliver his message. The shelling stopped, and more than 200 American lives were saved…all because the little bird would never quit trying in its selfless service (maybe, thinking of the lives at stake tied to its leg).

She arrived back at her loft at division headquarters 25 miles to the rear in just 25 minutes, helping to save the lives of the over 200 survivors. In this last mission, Cher Ami delivered the message despite having been shot through the breast, blinded in one eye, covered in blood and with a leg hanging only by a tendon.

Cher Ami became the hero of the 77th Infantry Division . Army medics worked long and hard to save her life. They were unable to save her leg, so they carved a small wooden one for her. When she recovered enough to travel, the now one-legged bird was put on a boat to the United States, with General
John J. Pershing personally seeing Cher Ami off as she departed France.

Upon return to the United States, Cher Ami became the mascot of the Department of Service. The pigeon was awarded the Croix de Guerre Medal with a palm Oak Leaf Cluster for her heroic service in delivering 12 important messages in Verdun. She died at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, on June 13, 1919 from the wounds she received in battle and was later inducted into the Racing Pigeon Hall of Fame in 1931. She also received a gold medal from the Organized Bodies of American Racing Pigeon Fanciers in recognition of her extraordinary service during World War I.

To American school children, Cher Ami was as well known as any human World War I heroes. Cher Ami’s body was later mounted by a taxidermist and enshrined in the Smithsonian Institution. It is currently on display with that of Sergeant Stubby in the
National Museum of American History ‘s “Price of Freedom” exhibit.

Wonderful right?
Indeed.

Years after the war a man named Harry Webb Farrington decided to put together a book of poems and short stories about the men and heroes of World War I. When his book was published, it contained a special poem dedicated to Cher Ami:

“Cher Ami, how do you do!
Listen, let me talk to you;
I’ll not hurt you, don’t you see?
Come a little close to me.

Little scrawny blue and white
Messenger for men who fight,
Tell me of the deep, red scar,
There, just where no feathers are.

What about your poor left leg?
Tell me, Cher Ami, I beg.
Boys and girls are at a loss,
How you won that Silver Cross.

“The finest fun that came to me
Was when I went with Whittlesey;
We marched so fast, so far ahead!
‘We all are lost,’ the keeper said;

‘Mon Cher Ami– that’s my dear friend–
You are the one we’ll have to send;
The whole battalion now is lost,
And you must win at any cost.’

So with the message tied on tight;
I flew up straight with all my might,
Before I got up high enough,
Those watchfull guns began to puff.

Machine-gun bullets came like rain,
You’d think I was an aeroplane;
And when I started to the rear,
My! the shot was coming near!

But on I flew, straight as a bee;
The wind could not catch up with me,
Until I dropped out of the air,
Into our own men’s camp, so there!”

But, Cher Ami, upon my word,
You modest, modest little bird;
Now don’t you know that you forgot?
Tell how your breast and leg were shot.

“Oh, yes, the day we crossed the Meuse,
I flew to Rampont with the news;
Again the bullets came like hail,
I thought for sure that I should fail.

The bullets buzzed by like a bee,
So close, it almost frightened me;
One struck the feathers of this sail,
Another went right through my tail.

But when I got back to the rear,
I found they hit me, here and here;
But that is nothing, never mind;
Old Poilu , there is nearly blind.

I only care for what they said,
For when they saw the way I bled,
And found in front a swollen lump,
The message hanging from this stump;

The French and Mine said, ‘Tres bien,’
Or ‘Very good’–American.
‘Mon Cher Ami , you brought good news;
Our Army’s gone across the Meuse!

You surely had a lucky call!
And so I’m glad. I guess that’s all.
I’ll sit, so pardon me, I beg;
It’s hard a-standing on one leg!”
[“Cher Ami” and Poems From France
Rough & Brown Press, 1920]

Before you make that very decision there today, think of the number of lives that very decision of yours could make or mar. The lives at stake like the Pigeonpost “Cher Ami” did.
This is all our community and nation is in deficiency or better still, void of.

Learn from Cher Ami selfless service today and put on a new spirit.

Bamidele Williams
08/08/2016
+2348134810254
profcube10@gmail.com

Bamidele Williams is a journalist, a public affairs Analyst and Convener, Pigeonpost.