April 2012
Our April program was provided by Mr. John Alosi Jr. Mr. Alosi spoke on the 282nd Signal Pigeon Co. And its importance during WWII. Mr. Alosi's father, 1st Sgt. John Alosi Sr. served in the 282nd during the war. Thousands of signal pigeons were used in the front lines to carry messages to command posts. Pigeons were housed in ' lofts ' and are trained to return to their hone loft when liberated. During the war, many mobile lofts were used to facilitate communications. This caused unique issues in that the pigeons, by nature, wanted to return to their geographical location of their home loft. Signal pigeons are specially breed for their task.
Pigeons have been used to carry messages since the days of King Solomon. Later, the news of Napoleon's defeat at Waretloo in 1815 was carried back to England by pigeons. In 1849, Paul Reuter, founder of Reuter's Press Agency, experimented with pigeons to link Aachen and Brussels. With the advances in communications, the need for carrier pigeons deminished and the pigeons were phased out of service. Today there remains lofts whos birds are trained for sport competition. Our thanks to Mr. Alosi for his interesting and informative presentation.
Read Mr. Alosi's book: ' War Birds: A History Of The 282nd Signal Pigeon Co. ISBN: 978-1-57747-150-9