Pigeons

    Carrier pigeons are a fascinating form of communication, which I had not given much thought to before our presentations in class. I especially found the way they were trained to be particularly interesting. For example, a pigeon can be taught that a particular place or location is home, and from then on, the pigeon will always return to that place. This particular ability of pigeons to recognize home is what made them so useful during the World Wars. Soldiers would take pigeons out into the field with them where they could be used to send messages back to base or to other important locations.

    I think that pigeons were a very underrated form of communication during the war. They were used as a way to send encoded messages about troop movements and other sensitive information so that it could not be heard by the enemy, which was a possibility when using radio. They also were able to fly for hundreds of miles even when injured. This fact was a massive contributing factor to the rescue of hundreds of soldiers throughout the war because they were able to get a pigeon out to request aid and reinforcements.

    Having pigeons as a source of communication is a novel concept for the current age, but something that should be remembered for the good that it was able to accomplish. I do not think that having them in the modern era is useful, however. They are a novel concept which were useful at the time, but have since become obsolete.