The Ultimate Messenger

The Ultimate Messenger

  Close your eyes and let your mind take you back in time to World War Two. You’re hunkered down in a fox hole behind enemy lines with a raging battle going on all around you. Vastly out numbered, ammunition nearly gone and about to be over run by the enemy, your Lieutenant screams for the radioman to get a call in for artillery support. The Lieutenants heart sinks when he’s informed that communications were knocked out several minutes ago. To make matters worse, darkness is quickly closing in on the desperate soldiers and freezing rain has begun to fall. The men are in a hell of a jam. They have to get a message back to headquarters immediately. With help over a hundred miles away, a man on foot would never make it in time. The message would have to be delivered through the air.

  The Lieutenant bellows the order to get a flyer ready to move out as a grenade explodes just 200 feet away. The platoon watches as their youngest flyer lifts off into a smoke filled sky lit up by enemy artillery fire.

  Less than two hours later the message is delivered to the commander with the platoons coordinates so the necessary action can be taken to rescue them. The flyer is cold, hungry and near exhaustion after the heroic flight. A much deserved meal of seeds and grains will be brought to him in the loft he shares with several other pigeons.

  Our hero is not the common city pigeon you see milling around on tall buildings or looking for hand outs in city parts.

  These are known as homing pigeons and played an important role in wars through out history as they carried vital messages. Homers, as they are called by people who raise them rode in a wicker basket attached to a soldier’s back as the infantry advanced. When needed, a message was written on light weight onion paper and slid into a tiny capsule attached to the bird’s leg. Tossed high into the air, the bird would head straight for its loft which of course was located at headquarters. 

   Scenarios very similar to the one I described took place many times in both World Wars. In World War Two alone, 32 homing pigeons received the Dickin Medal bearing the words “For Gallantry” and “We Also Serve.”

  I talked to four members of various homing pigeon clubs in the Kansas City area recently to learn more about these marvelous birds. To a man, they suggested I talk to John McLean of Shawnee, Kansas. They all agreed that he is the leading expert on homers.

  The beautiful weeping willow tree guarding the front of John’s comfortable two story home gave me the feeling he would be a down to earth type of man. My feelings were 100 percent correct. The 85 year old retired dentist motioned for me to have a seat at the kitchen table as he poured a cup of coffee. He no more than sat down when his ten year old cat strolled into the room with his tail sticking straight up. Perhaps he sensed that we would be talking about one of his favorite topics; pigeons.

  The little feline earns his keep by following John into the loft where he patrols for potential pigeon feed thieves such as field mice.  

  John, who grew up in Columbia, Mo has raised pigeons since the tender age of nine. He was a bombardier in World War Two and a Dentist in the Korean War but never got the opportunity to work with pigeons in the service. His dental practice was at

Independence Avenue

and Prospect on Kansas Cities northeast side for over forty years.

  In the center of his large back yard sits an impressive white building the pigeons call home. The birds looked very nervous as I followed John inside the loft. “They don’t like strangers coming in here” said John as he picked up several of the homers and set them in crates so they could be loaded into the back of a pickup truck belonging to fellow Kansas City Pigeon Racing Club members who were on their way over with their own birds.

  The men planned to haul the birds approximately 25 miles away for their first flight since last fall. Competitive racing doesn’t start until April and ends in late fall. As soon as they’re released they’ll head straight for home and in all likely hood beat the truck back. The distance will be increased each week until they are back in top condition and capable of competing in races as long as 600 miles.  On a good day, a champion caliber bird can cover that distance by the time the sun sets. On occasion, they encounter bad weather such as rain, strong winds and excessive heat that slows them down and extends the trip to several days or even months such as the time John had one show up a year later.

     Pigeon races often attract as many as 1,200 entries. A mechanical device releases the homers at the same precise time. At the end of the flight a small electronic computer scans each bird’s identification number and the exact time it enters its home loft. This information is taken to the combine secretary in Topeka, Kansas where they determine what place each bird finished in. Judging from a solid wall of trophy’s in John’s home I would say most of his homers which are known as McLean pigeons because he has been breeding and raising them for over 70 years win their fair share of the races.

  “There isn’t a lot of difference in male and females when it comes to racing” said John. “As a rule, the males are slightly faster and better suited for short races while the females are more steady and better for the longer runs but I do have birds that do great at both types of races”.

   For exercise, they are set free twice a day to fly high in the skies over Johnson County.

   As you can see, not all pigeons hang out on tall buildings dropping unwanted “presents” on clean cars or beg for hand outs in parks.

 Homers like to earn their way in this world.