CHAPTER XVIII
Army Signal Pigeons
The veterinary service forArmy signal pigeons was an innovation of World War II, beginning in 1941 whena Veterinary Corps officer was assigned to the Fort Monmouth, N.J., pigeon-breeding and training center.1 Signal pigeons for the Army were procured, bred, trained, and issuedunder the supervision of the Pigeon Service, an element of the Army's SignalCorps (1, 2, 3). These activities may be compared with those of theQuartermaster Corps Remount Service which was concerned with the supply ofhorses, mules, and dogs; they had their beginning in World War I when pigeonswere authorized for use as a means of communication in the U.S. Army (4).
Seemingly, the earliestreference to any kind of veterinary service for pigeons in the Army concernedMedical Department supplies (5). During August 1922, the Veterinary Division,Surgeon General's Office, developed a list of equipment and certain medicines(including disinfectants) which could be used by Pigeon Service personnel tomaintain loft sanitation and to control external parasites. Sodium fluoridewas suggested for the control of pigeon lice. However, medicines for internaluse or biologicals were unlisted for the expressed reason that "it isbetter to destroy a sick bird than to treat it unless a qualified veterinarianis available." Two years later, a veterinary officer, in an article onpigeons that appeared in the Army Veterinary Bulletin, suggested that the careand management of signal pigeons may "become another more or lessimportant development of army veterinary activity" (6). This became trueafter 17 years when at least 17 Veterinary Corps officers could be identifiedwith the Signal Corps pigeon organizations and units.
SIGNAL PIGEON PROCUREMENT
The beginning of World WarII found the Army's pigeon center located at Fort Monmouth where it had beensince 1919 when the latter-then named Camp AlfredVail-began a program fordeveloping the type of pigeon most suitable for military purposes (7) During1942 this center, including its veterinary personnel which hadjust joined, moved to Camp Crowder, Mo., where it remained until after V-J Daywhen it was reestablished at Fort Monmouth. By this date, the Army VeterinaryService had become well established in the Signal Corps activities related topigeons in the Zone of Interior (8, 9).
11st Lt. (later Capt.) C. I. Angstrom, VC, was ordered into active military service on 24 April 1941,with initial station at Fort Monmouth. He was transferred with the pigeoncenter to Camp Crowder, Mo., during September of the following year.Another veterinary officer, 1st Lt. L. M. Greene, VC, joined on 5 November1942.
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Pigeons for the Army wereprocured by in-service breeding and the acceptance of voluntary donations (fig.72). An estimated 40,000 pigeons were received from American pigeon breeders,fanciers, and owners during the war (10); in fact, an Army Pigeon ServiceAgency, with headquarters in Philadelphia, Pa., was organized and operated for this purpose (11). In the Central Pacific Area, where civilian owners experienced wartimeshortages of feeding grains and were placed under restrictions relating to theownership of pigeons in areas of military operations, hundreds of pigeons wereobtained locally. Thousands of other pigeons were procured from British sourcesand later from a Belgian fanciers' organization. In the European theater largenumbers of captured pigeons were used by Signal Corps units with the fieldarmies; only a few Japanese Army pigeons were captured in the Pacific areas.
PIGEON CARE AND MANAGEMENT
During World War II, as theArmy's pigeon strength rose to 54,000 birds (10), the objectives of the ArmyVeterinary Service concerned with signal pigeons became the protection of pigeonhealth, the preservation of their physical efficiency, and the safeguard againstintroducing or disseminating
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pigeonborne diseasesaffecting other animals and the human being. These objectives were obtained byfurnishing professional services and supervisory assistance in the care,feeding, housing, and transporting of pigeons; conducting laboratorydiagnostic and investigative studies on pigeon diseases; establishing controlsagainst the diseases of pigeons by prophylactic inoculations and quarantineprocedures; inspecting and reporting on factors having a bearing on pigeon health;and giving technical assistance in the training of pigeoneers (pigeon handlers).Although 36,000 pigeons were deployed overseas, the foregoing veterinaryservices were not practiced uniformly in all of the theaters and oversea areasbecause of the newness in the concept of military veterinary medicine for theArmy Pigeon Service. However, when practiced, the Army Veterinary Servicecontributed materially to the success of signal pigeon deployment.
Aside from the actualtreatment of disabled pigeons, providing veterinary instructional services forpigeoneers who were in training was an effective means of introducing militaryveterinary medicine into the Army Pigeon Service. The 8- or 9-week mobilization training program that was used in theArmy Service Forces Signal Corps training center at CampCrowder included 25 hours of instruction on veterinarysubjects (12, 13). In an evaluation of the success of this instruction, it seemsprobable that the keen interest shown in scientific zootechnics and veterinarymedicine was balanced by the layman's views or preconceptions on these mattersby the pigeoneer trainees, most of whom were pigeon breeders or fanciers incivil life but had never been in contact with a veterinarian. Unfortunately, theveterinary instructional services were handicapped at the start due to thefact that the Army's training text-Technical Manual 11-410, dated 10 September 1940-was neitheraccurate nor up to date in itsdiscussions on pigeon diseases and their control. Pigeon-pox vaccine, forexample-discovered in the earlythirties-was not mentioned, and neither wassalmonellosis (or pigeon paratyphoid) which was the most devastating disease ofsignal pigeons during World War II. The situation was ameliorated by VeterinaryCorps officers to the extent that lecture notes were prepared which werepublished by the Signal Corps at a later date (14, 15), these then beingincorporated into the 1 January 1945 revision of the Technical Manual, The HomingPigeon.
The next event of importancein the advancement of veterinary service for Army signal pigeons came in thespring of 1942 when the field unit-the Signal PigeonCompany-was authorized itsown organic veterinary detachment. However, the most effective means ofinsuring that good zootechnics was being practiced in these units-whether in theZone of Interior or overseas-was the use of a system of veterinaryinspection and reporting. Most frequently, these reports of inspections wererendered in letter form as a recurring monthly sanitary report (16), but otherswere submitted as inclosures to those report forms prescribed by the Army forpigeon company commanders. No veterinary reports on individual pigeons weremaintained.
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FIGURE 73.-Maintainingpigeon efficiency by the use of clean and good-quality pigeon feed.
Although there were a numberof factors of interest to the Army Veterinary Service bearing on the healthof signal pigeons, the more common ones included their feed supply and housing.A balanced feed and good feeding practices were essential to the well being ofthe signal pigeons and had a direct bearing on their homing proficiency (fig.73). The feed was procured in the Zone of Interior by the Signal Corps;unfortunately, large quantities of it, packed in burlap bags, were founddeteriorated or unusable after arrival in the oversea theaters (17, 18). The bagswere torn by rough handling or were readily eaten into by rodents, and the graincontents became damp, moldy, or vermin infested. Certain grain components ofthe feed mixtures were damaged more often than others, but any large-scalesalvageeffort to remove the damaged grains could not be conducted without causing animbalance of the feed's nutritive values. Pigeon feed which was fumigated andpacked in hermetically sealed tin containers was suggested and arrived overseasduring the late period of the war. Theapparent successes of the 281st Signal Pigeon Company, at Fort George G. Meade, Md., in the treatment ofsick pigeons byadministering vitamins-suggestive of vitamindeficiency in the regular pigeon feed supply-ledto authorization of quarterly Medical Department allowances of 45,000multivitamin capsules for each pigeon company (19).
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Proper housing for signalpigeons was a problem, particularly in the oversea theaters. Though mobile loftsof standard design accompanied the units arriving from the Zone of Interior,some were remodeled to meet the variable climatic conditions which wereencountered in the Central Pacific Area (20), and open-front lofts wereconstructed (fig. 74). Emphasis was placed on having lofts which were exposedto sunlight, dry, and draft-free, and on keeping the lofts in a good state ofsanitation. Usually, the loft facilities were adequate in capacity or thenumber of pigeons being used, although temporary shortages arose whenbreeding was undertaken. In an exceptional instance, the 277th Signal PigeonCompany, arriving at P?riers, France (in the European theater), during August1944, constructed open aviaries to augment its regular loft facilities.However, at the time of the seasonal rains, it experienced sickness in 2,500 ofits 3,500 pigeons.
The diseases and injuries ofsignal pigeons were not recorded with the same degree of regularity as werethose of Army horses and mules, and dogs. From the reports that could bestudied, losses on account of disease and injury were about one-half less thanthe number of pigeons which were lost in training and operational flying. Inthe Zone of Interior, at Pope Field, N.C., the
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1306th Signal PigeonCompany (Aviation), with an end-of-month strength averaging 3,317 pigeons duringthe period from April 1943 through August 1944, the veterinary losses were 922pigeons, as contrasted with in-flight losses of 1,102 (21, 22). In the sameunit, but for the period from August 1943 through August 1944, the companyveterinarian treated 4,036 cases, admitting 1,390 of these into the veterinaryhospital loft where 738 pigeons died or were destroyed. It was apparent that theveterinary losses increased following the reception of replacement pigeons intothese units. Wherever possible, particularly at the pigeon-breeding andreplacement centers, and at the headquarters area of units and organizations,veterinary lofts and isolation (or quarantine) facilities were established.
The specific infectiousdiseases causing the most losses and inefficiency of signal pigeons during WorldWar II were pigeon pox, salmonellosis, and trichomoniasis ("canker").The first-named disease-encountered in all parts of theworld-was readilycontrolled by prophylactic vaccinations of the pigeons each year.
Pigeon-pox vaccinationprograms were undertaken first by the Pigeon Service in some areas of the Zoneof Interior in 1941 (23) and were developed later by the Army Veterinary Servicein the Central Pacific Area and then in the European theater.
Trichomoniasis andsalmonellosis, however, could not be as well controlled and thus, unlike pigeonpox, caused considerable inefficiency and direct loss of the affected pigeons.Trichomoniasis-a protozoandisease-was seen as a low-grade infection, mostlyinvolving the squabs (or young pigeons), and, although amenable to treatment,the course of treatment, lasting up to 4 weeks, resulted in the loss of trainingtime (23, 24).
Salmonellosis-a bacterialinfection-presented another kind of problem, frequently causing permanentdisability (such as lameness and "wing droop"). It was the leadingcause of pigeon mortality (including deaths and destructions to control thedisease) in many units. For example, the 280th Signal Pigeon Company atCamp Claiborne, La., lost 200 pigeons in a 7-month period beginningDecember 1942 (23). Another 141 salmonellosis-infected pigeons were lost by the1306th Signal Pigeon Company (Aviation) in the period from April through August1944 (22). These losses were 40.2 percent of the total of 351 pigeons which haddied or were destroyed because of diseases and injuries. This disease wasinvestigated by veterinary laboratories of the Medical Department and by a fewcivilian agencies, including the AmericanSalmonellaCenter, Lexington, Ky., with the view to identifying the salmonellaorganism, improving diagnostic methods, and possibly developing a protectivevaccine. No real advances were made, however, and the controls against thedisease included emphasis on loft sanitation and the removal of pigeons whichshowed clinical symptoms or seemed to be carriers of the disease (as might beindicated in a review of the breeding records). Salmonellosis in pigeons
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gained some respect as apotential threat to troop health,2 but no proved cases of the disease seemed tohave been reported among Army pigeoneers during the war (17).
Other pigeon diseasesincluded hexamitiasis-a protozoandisease-which was reported in 87 pigeonsamong a shipment received at Pope Field from Camp Crowder in early 1944 (22); aHaemoproteus infection, sometimes called pigeon malaria,3 in the 279th SignalCombat Platoon while at station in the Hawaiian Islands (in the Central PacificArea) (24); and an enzootic of toxoplasmosis in the Panama Canal Departmentthat was investigated by the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory (25). Probably moreimportant than these were the few diseases which could be carried by the pigeonto other animals or to troops. These were equine encephalomyelitis,4foot-and-mouth disease,5 and ornithosis; however, there were no reports of thediseases being introduced or spread by Army signal pigeons during World War II.
OVERSEA DEPLOYMENT
For their deployment in theoversea theaters, Army signal pigeons were incorporated into a specialized unit-the Signal Pigeon Company. While such type units have been described in WarDepartment tables of organization since 1918, it was not until after April 1942that this field unit included personnel space authorizations for an organicveterinary detachment. The latter comprised a Veterinary Corps officer in thegrade of 1st lieutenant or captain and one enlisted technician (26 through31).The company unit could be subdivided into three combat platoons, each with1,500 pigeons; in fact, a few separate platoons with attached veterinarypersonnel were deployed. Later, equipment tables were formulated for the pigeoncompany veterinary service, including a number of needed medicines and surgicalinstruments (32, 33).
Approximately 12 pigeonunits were activated during the war including the 829th Signal Pigeon ServiceCompany, the 829th Signal Pigeon Replacement Company, and the 1306th and1310th Signal Pigeon Companies (Aviation)-the latter being Army Air Forcesunits located at Pope Field, and at Baker Field, Calif. These, however, andanother-the 283d Signal Pigeon Company-were not sent overseas. The followingcompanies were deployed to the European theater: The 277th (originallydesignated the 1307th), the 278th (successor to the original 1308th), the 282d,the 284th (successor to the 1309th), the 285th (successor to the 1311th), andthe 280th's 2d Platoon. The
2In the instance of anendemic of diarrheal conditions occurring among pigeoneers in a company unitin the European theater, the company commander expressly asked his personnel towash their hands after handling pigeons and before eating. Personnel assigned topermanent duty in the company kitchen included men who would not be in directcontact with pigeons.
3This should not beconfused with the true malarial infection caused by Plasmodium relictum, alsoinfectious to man.
4The pigeon is a knownnatural reservoir of the viral agent of equine encephalomyelitis.
5With respect to thecarrier status of the pigeon for the viral agent of foot-and-mouth disease, theBritish Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries made no restrictions against theincoming traffic of U.S. Army pigeons into the British Isles from the EuropeanContinent where the disease was enzootic.
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280th Signal Pigeon Companywas activated on 1 June 1941, originally as the 2d Pigeon Company, at CampClaiborne; the unit, less its 2d Platoon which was sent during September 1942 tothe European theater, was deployed into the China-Burma-India theater (in June1944). The 279th Signal Pigeon Company (less its 3d Platoon) was deployed to theCentral Pacific Area and then was reorganized during July 1944 as the 279thSignal Pigeon Combat Platoon; the 1st Combat Platoon component of the 281stSignal Pigeon Company was sent from station at Fort George G. Meade to theSouthwest Pacific Area, and the parent company in the Zone of Interior was sooninactivated (during August 1944). Provisional pigeon organizations anddetachments also were established, or were received from the Zone of Interior,in the Mediterranean theater (including the 209th Signal Pigeon Company andthe Provisional 6681st Signal Corps Pigeon Company), on New Caledonia (in theSouth Pacific Area), at Ladd Field (in the Alaskan Department), and in theCaribbean Defense Command (including the original Panama Canal Department).The last-named group, however, had no attached veterinary personnel. Of thesetheaters, the Central Pacific Area and the European theater saw the greatestadvances in the veterinary services for signal pigeons-handicapped only to aslight degree in that the pigeons of each company unit were widely scattered and the professional requirements were of ahighly?specializednature.
Central Pacific Area
In the Central Pacific Area,veterinary service for signal pigeons began in July 1942, when componentelements of the 279th Signal Pigeon Company, with 1,920 birds, arrived from theZone of Interior (fig. 75) (34). A pigeon base and breeding center wasestablished at Fort Shafter, T.H., wherefrom 27 tactical lofts were soon set upon all the Hawaiian Islands: 6 on Oahu, 10 on Hawaii, 5 on Kauai, 4 on Maui,and 1 each on Molokai and Lanai. Veterinary service was furnished by theVeterinary General Hospital, Fort Armstrong, Oahu, T.H., and by the district orservice command veterinarians on the other island bases. During the fall of1942, a vaccination program against pigeon pox was started-birds as young as 2to 3 weeks of age were vaccinated, and all pigeons were vaccinated prior totheir transshipment from the Hawaiian Island group (18, 20). Salmonellosis,originally referred to as "lameness" or "wing droop,"occurred quite regularly and was controlled by the destruction of those pigeonsshowing clinical symptoms. The pigeon strength in the Central Pacific Area was2,278 as of December 1942, and 3,426 as of December 1943. During the next year,the pigeon company was reorganized and redesignated as the 279th Signal PigeonCombat Platoon, with 1,365 birds as of December 1944. Approximately 2,300pigeons which were surplus to the new unit were shipped during September 1944 tothe Southwest Pacific Area and the Zone of Interior. In December, the signalplatoon was assigned to the Tenth U.S. Army and subsequently was deployed toOkinawa. Before the last move, a Veterinary Corps officer was assigned to thisunit.
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The deployment of the 279thSignal Pigeon Combat Platoon to Okinawa brought into the Southwest PacificArea the second such unit. The other was the 1st Combat Platoon, 281st SignalPigeon Company, complete with its own veterinary detachment. This unitsaw service in the Philippine operations.
European Theater
In the European theater, thebeginning of Army Veterinary Service with signal pigeons began in the fall of1942 with the arrival of the 2d Platoon, 280th Signal Pigeon Company, with 1,391pigeons from the Zone of Interior (35, 36, 37). The latter's arrivalbrought two veterinary problems: First, 20 percent of the pigeons were sick withcolds, "rattles," and lameness; and second, the British militarymedical services were questioning the likelihood of these pigeons having andintroducing ornithosis into the United Kingdom (38, 39, 40, 41).With regard to ornithosis, the British services made reference to newreports of the discovery of ornithosis among the pigeon popula?
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tion in the United Statesand suggested that no medical problems would arise if the Army would obtain itspigeons locally. Veterinary quarantine procedures and research investigationsby the British National Institute of Medical Research and the U.S. Army General Medical LaboratoryA (predecessorto the 1st Medical GeneralLaboratory) failed to show ornithosis infection; later, the civilian pigeonpopulation in the United Kingdom was found to be infected with the disease. In time, the 2d Platoon, 280th Signal PigeonCompany, established and maintaineda pigeon-breeding and replacement center at Tidworth, Eng., as an element ofthe theater's services of supply organization (fig. 76). It furnished birds tothe several pigeon companies which were deployed with the armies on the EuropeanContinent. Veterinary service was provided to the pigeon center by VeterinaryCorps officers on a part-time duty, status-a situation that was criticized bythe tactical pigeon companies who, having full-time assigned veterinarypersonnel, at times received unsatisfac-
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tory shipments ofreplacement birds (42). For example, a program of protective vaccinationagainst pigeon pox-though considered first within theEuropean theaterduring the summer of 1944-was originally limited touse only in the tacticalpigeon companies in the instance of a threatening enzootic (43, 44). In January1945, however,the pigeon-breeding base in England began to vaccinate all replacement pigeonsbefore shipment to the European Continent; during that month alone, 7,809pigeons were vaccinated.
Following V-E Day, the tactical pigeon companies were required to turn in their pigeons to the285th Signal Pigeon Company which released them to a British pigeon depot atMontoire-sur-le-loire, France; others were sent to the United Kingdom (42).As of June 1945, the pigeon-breeding and replacement center at Tidworth had14,000 pigeons, these soon being released to the British (45). Theforementioned company, departing during November and December1945 from the European theater (via England), returned to the Zone ofInterior with approximately 1,000 pigeons.
References
1. AR 105-200, 3 July 1936.
2. AR 105-200, 26 Dec. 1946.
3. SR 10-380-1, 21 Oct. 1949.
4. World War I Group, Historical Division, OCMH: Order ofBattle of the United States Land Forces in the World War (1917-19). Washington:U. S. Government Printing Office, 1949.
5. Memorandum, Lt. Col. C. F. Morse, MC, Veterinary Division, SGO, forCoordination, Organization,and Education Division, SGO, 11 Aug. 1922, subject: Table of BasicAllowances, Pigeon Service.
6. Sperry, J. R.: The Homing Pigeon. Army Vet. Bull. 13: 249-251,June 1924.
7. Ross, T.: The Originand History of Homing Pigeons. Army Vet. Bull. 25: 47-53, January 1931.
8. World War II History ofthe Army Veterinary Service, Second Service Command, Zone of Interior.[Official record.]
9. World War II History ofthe Army Veterinary Service, Seventh Service Command, Zone of Interior.[Official record.]
10. Meyer, O.: TheBattlefield's Feathered Couriers. Army InformationDigest 5: 23-30, February 1950.
11. WD Memorandum S105-19-43, 15 May 1943.
12. MTP 11-2, 10 May 1943.
13. MTP 11-1, 1 June 1944.
14. Central Signal CorpsReplacement Training Center, Camp Crowder, Mo., June 1944: PreventiveVeterinary Medicine.
15. Eastern Signal Corps Unit Training Center, FortMonmouth, N.J., January 1944: Pigeon Diseases andParasites.
16. Letter, Col. E. M.Curley, VC, Veterinarian, Chief Surgeon's Office, HQ ETOUSA, to VeterinaryOffice, 16 Oct. 1943, subject: Veterinary Sanitary Report on Guard Dogs andPigeons.
17. Letter, Capt. A. T.Miller, SigC, 278th Signal Pigeon Company, 1 Dec. 1944, subject: ActionAgainst Enemy Reports After/After Action Reports.
18. ETMD, Central PacificBase Command, October 1944.
19. Letter, Office of theChief Signal Officer, to Veterinarian, 281st Signal Pigeon Company, 4 Nov. 1942, subject: Vitamin Capsules.
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20. Letter, Maj. W. O. Kester, VC, South Sector Veterinarian, Fort Armstrong, to DepartmentVeterinarian, HQ Hawaiian Department, 8 Oct. 1942, subject: Veterinary Servicefor Signal Corps Pigeons.
21. Monthly Pigeon Report,1306th Signal Pigeon Company, April 1943 through August 1944.
22. Monthly Reports ofHospital Loft, 1306th Signal Pigeon Company, April 1943 through August 1944.
23. Rosenwald, A. S.:Veterinary Problems in a Signal Pigeon Company. J. Am. Vet. M. A. 104: 141-143,March 1944.
24. Gleiser, C. A., and Yager, R.H.: Trichomonad and Haemoproteus Infections. Army M. Bull. 6: 177-182,August 1946.
25. Letter, C. M. Johnson, Gorgas Memorial Laboratory, Panama, to Brig. Gen. R. A. Kelser, VeterinaryDivision, SGO, 3 Oct. 1943.
26. T/O 348, 18 June 1918.
27. T/O 210W, 5 July 1921.
28. T/O 11-39, 10 Jan. 1939.
29. T/O 11-39,1 Nov. 1940.
30. T/O 11-39, 1 Apr. 1942.
31. T/O&E 11-39, 6 Sept. 1943.
32. T/O&E 11-39, 26 Mar. 1943.
33. T/O&E 11-39, 6 Sept. 1943.
34. Kester, W. O., and Miller, E. B.: World War II History of theArmy Veterinary Service, CentralPacific Area. [Official record.]
35. Sperry, J. R., and Huebner, R. A.: World War II History of the ArmyVeterinary Service, ETO. [Official record.]
36. Annual Report,Veterinary Division, Chief Surgeon's Office, ETOUSA. 1944.
37. Quarterly Report,Veterinary Division, Chief Surgeon's Office, USFET, 4th quarter, 1945.
38. Memorandum, Lt. Col. J.E. Gordon, MC, Preventive Medicine Division, Chief Surgeon's Office,ETOUSA, for Col.P. R. Hawley, MC, 28 Aug. 1942, subject: Importation of Pigeons by the SignalCorps.
39. Letter, Col. E. M.Curley, VC, Veterinary Division, Chief Surgeon's Office, ETOUSA, to Maj. R. B.Wann, VC, Veterinarian, 5th PE, 29 Sept. 1942.
40. Memorandum, Col. E.M. Curley, VC, Veterinary Division, Chief Surgeon's Office, ETOUSA, for SignalOfficer, ETOUSA, 19 Sept. 1942, subject: 2d Platoon, 280th Signal PigeonCompany, II Army Corps-CorpsTroops, Bellahouston Park (British Camp),Glasgow.
41. Letter, Lt. Col. J. E.Gordon, MC, Preventive Medicine Division, Chief Surgeon's Office, ETOUSA, toSurgeon, 2d Signal Pigeon Co., II Army Corps, Glasgow, 13 Oct. 1942, subject:Psittacosis in Pigeons.
42. Veterinary SanitaryReports, 285th Signal Pigeon Company, 31 Jan. 1945, 1 Aug. 1945.
43. Letter, Col. C. B. Perkins, VC, Veterinarian, Chief Surgeon's Office,ETOUSA,to all veterinary officers, 27 Jan. 1945, subject: Vaccination of PigeonsAgainst Variola Avium.
44. Veterinary Report ofSanitation for Pigeons, Southern District, United Kingdom Base, January 1945.
45. Medical DepartmentActivity Report, Surgeon's Office, United Kingdom Base, ETOUSA, 1 Jan.-30June 1945.
