to protect an American munitions pier from North Vietnamese sabo- teurs. “They were incredibly effec- tive,” says LaPuzza. “They were a great deterrent.” Nearly three decades later, at the onset of Operation Iraqi Free- dom, dolphins assisted the Navy in the identification and removal of mines at Iraq’s Umm Qasr Port so the British RFA Sir Galahad could
deliver humanitarian supplies. At the same time, sea lions were deployed to Bahrain to guard American ships. LaPuzza is quick to note the
animals in the Marine Mammal Program are never placed in harm’s way, nor are they trained to engage in harmful activities. “If someone asked [the animals’ trainers] to do something like train a dolphin to carry a bomb and blow up a ship,
that’s simply not going to happen. They would never do that.”
On a wing and a prayer
No discussion of the military use of animals would be complete without a mention of homing pigeons. His- torians believe the use of pigeons in the military dates to ancient times. More contemporary examples of their use include the 1870-71 siege
(Top row, from left) A war elephant is carved into Cambodia’s Angkor
Wat temple, built in the 12th century. A Mughal painting from the 11th or 12th century by an unknown artist depicts animals on a Persian battlefield. Raphael directed around 1540 the creation of this piece depicting Hanni- bal’s use of elephants while crossing the Alps during the Second Punic War, 218-201 B.C. Moroccan army soldiers patrol with camels in western Sahara during the 1980s. A U.S. Navy marine mammal handler instructs one of his dolphins using hand signals in this 2005 U.S. Navy photo. Army Capt. J. Caiger developed a small capsule to relay messages via pigeon. (Bottom row, from left) Elephants pull artillery and transport soldiers in this 1897 photo from Secunderabad, India. In the Cambodian Wat Bo temple, paint- ings from the late 1800s depict scenes from the epic poem Reamker. An unknown artist painted Caliph Omar, flanked by horses and camels, entering Jerusalem after his 638 conquest of the city. Published in Le Petit Journal in 1906, this illustration shows the meharists (French camel corps) at an oasis. A U.S. Signal Corps carrier pigeon readies for a mission.
IMAGES: TOP ROW, SECOND FROM RIGHT, PETTY OFFICER 1ST CLASS PIERRE G. GEORGES, USN; ALL OTHERS, CORBIS
of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War. And during World War I, Gen. John Pershing ordered the U.S. Army Signal Corps to train and maintain a contingent of pigeons, after seeing firsthand their importance among the European armies. It is estimated nearly half a
million birds were put into service by both sides over the course of the conflict. Their use continued during World War II.
MO
— Don Vaughan is a freelance writer based in North Carolina. His last article for Military Officer was “Benefits for You,” May 2010.
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