Cher Ami


Winged Warrior During World War I, soldiers transmitted messages via field phone. But that meant stringing phone wire across vast distances or tough terrain, which was no easy feat. So the army sought the help of communication experts: carrier pigeons.


On 3 October 1918, Major Charles Whittlesey and his 500 men were trapped in a small hollow on the side of a hill in the Battle of the Argonne, France. The enemy surrounded them, and their food and ammunition were running low. If they couldn’t get an SOS message to rescuers, they would all die. Major Charles Whittlesey composed a desperate plea for help and sent it up with one pigeon, who was immediately shot down. He tried again, only for another bird to meet the same end.


The troop had one chance left: Cher Ami (French for ‘dear friend’). Cher Ami took off into heavy enemy fire and – like the feathered fliers who had gone before her – was shot down. The troop thought all was lost, but then they saw Cher Ami rise into the sky again. Miraculously, the pigeon was back in action.


Cher Ami flew 25 miles (40 km) in just over an hour, successfully carrying her message to division headquarters. When she arrived, she had been shot through the chest, blinded in one eye, and her leg was terribly wounded. Cher Ami saved approximately 200 lives that day and was hailed as a hero. Army medics attended to her wounds and outfitted the bird with a wooden leg. But it wasn’t until the patriot pigeon died the following year, as a result of her battle injuries, that it was discovered that Cher Ami wasn’t a male, as everyone thought. The brave bird had been a girl.


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