A pigeon gets a military medal

A pigeon gets a military medal

Tumbleweed Smith

“The pigeon was really the first email. It was the first form of fast communication.”

Dennis Graham of Brownwood spoke those words. He gives speeches about pigeons, something he’s been involved with since he was a boy. When his dad went on business trips, he took one of Dennis’ pigeons with him and released it to fly back home. Recently Dennis attended a national racing pigeon convention in Florida.

“Out of several thousand birds, one of my pigeons finished in the top 10%,” says Dennis. “Winning birds are calculated by yards per minute. My birds flew about 1,700 yards per minute. The winner flew about 1,800 yards per minute. Pigeons are fascinating. When I tell people I have racing pigeons, they always ask how you race a pigeon. Then I explain it to them how the field has changed with the new technology that makes it easy to determine the speed of these unique birds.”

Homing pigeons were used in World Wars I and II for communication and reconnaissance missions. Dennis knows about GI Joe, the pigeon that saved some British troops during World War II.

“British soldiers were going into this small town in Italy, Calvi Vecchia, and they were going to move the Germans out. They accomplished their mission ahead of schedule. So now they’re in this village, knowing that the allies, the U.S., were getting ready to bomb the city, unaware that the Germans had already been pushed out. The British troops released a U.S. Army homing pigeon called GI Joe, carrying a message that said, ‘don’t bomb us.’ GI Joe flew 20 miles in 20 minutes to carry the message, avoiding German bullets and falcons the Germans turned loose to get the pigeons, and landed safely at the air force base with the message just as planes were getting ready to take off and bomb the city.”

More than 100 British troops were saved, along with the village itself. The pigeon was flown to London, and at the Tower of London, a presentation was made to GI Joe of The Dickin Medal of Gallantry. The citation credits him with “the most outstanding flight made by a U.S. Army homing pigeon during World War II.”

The award is also known as the equivalent to the Victoria Cross or Medal of Honor for animals. GI Joe was the first non-British recipient of the medal. In 2019, he was posthumously awarded the Animals in War and Peace Medal of Bravery.

GI Joe died at the age of 18 in 1961. He was mounted and is displayed at the museum at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, home of the U.S. Army Pigeon Service, where pigeons are trained for combat. GI Joe’s nametag was Pigeon USA 43SC6390.

Dennis says pigeons have done a lot through history; Romans used them years ago for communication.