Heroism is not limited to the Human Race! One of the most famous birds in history is credited with
saving hundreds of American lives in WW1. Here today is author AK Patch to tell us about is what
happened in October of 1918.
1. Tell us the story, AK?
We must remember that WW1 cost the US over 116,000 deaths in a period of about a year and a half.
Horrific numbers. If you read about how we sent our troops into these battles it is a gut punch and
makes you realize all the more the courage of our troops during ww1.
In the later part of the War in France, a battalion of our army troops caught behind German lines in the
Meuse Argonne Forest. This was the famed “Lost Battalion”. 550 men ran out of food and ammunition
and lost communication with army command. They sent out runners, all killed or captured. Finally,
Major Charles Whittlesey sent out messenger pigeons. 2 were shot down. The situation became
desperate as American troops began to fire artillery on the Lost Battalion by mistake.
2. What happened next?
They sent another bird, a BLACK CHECK cock carrier pigeon named Cher Ami, meaning GOOD FRIEND
one of 600 birds, donated by Britain and trained by the by the US Army Signal Corps. Cher Ami had
already delivered 12 messages on previous missions.
They sent the bird away with a message to stop the barrage and their location. The Germans began
firing to kill the birds. It stopped in tree. A man climbed up the tree and sent it onward. The Germans
fired again, hitting it in the breast and leg and blinded. Somehow, Cher Ami made it 25 miles in 65
minutes, badly wounded and leg dangling by a tendon.
Helped to save 194 survivors. The medics saved the birds life but made a wooden leg for it.
3. Where did Cher Ami end up?
Praised as a hero, General Pershing was present to see the bird as it departed by ship to France.
Decorated with French and American medals, Cher Ami died in June 13, 1919 in Monmouth, New Jersey.
Upon Taxidermy, they discovered this was not a male, but a female!
She now stands in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.
4. How about your books, AK?
I welcome your listeners to read the time travel adventure series I’ve published involving a team of
professors thrown into an ancient war as training for a a devastating attack on the US in the near
future. Go to PASSAGE at DELPHI on Amazon. Hours of entertainment with meat and bones history,
romance, military, advanced science with a twist, and a look to the future 2.99 on Kindle!
Now, the new book I/m working on involves a carrier pigeon, but It has to do with the battle of
Waterloo and The Paris Catacombs. Are you ready for a paranormal adventure?