Did you know that during World War I, a homing pigeon named Cher Ami heroically saved 194 American soldiers?

Born on April twenty-first, nineteen eighteen, Cher Ami was donated by British pigeon fanciers for use by the U.S. Army Signal Corps in France.

Trained by American pigeoners, he became part of the seventy-seventh Division. On October third, nineteen eighteen, Major Charles White Whittlesey and his men were trapped behind enemy lines during the Meuse-Argonne offensive.

With no food or ammunition and under friendly fire due to a miscommunication, their situation was dire. Previous pigeons sent to deliver messages for help were shot down.

Despite being seriously injured by German fire, with a shot through the breast, blinded in one eye, and a leg hanging by a tendon, Cher Ami managed to fly twenty-five miles in just twenty-five minutes to deliver his message, ultimately saving the lives of the soldiers.

Cher Ami became a celebrated war hero and was awarded the Croix de Guerre Medal with a palm Oak Leaf Cluster for his valor.

He was also honored with the Animals in War & Peace Medal of Bravery posthumously in November two thousand and nineteen.

After recovering enough to travel, Cher Ami was sent back to the United States, where he died on June thirteenth, nineteen nineteen, from his battle wounds.

His legacy endures, with his body on display at the Smithsonian Institution alongside Sergeant Stubby, another animal war hero.

Cher Amis story has been immortalized in books, films, and even DNA analysis confirming his sex as male, solving a century-old mystery.

свернуть