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Gimpy, WWII US Army Pigeon

"GIMPY"
HATCHED IN 1938
SON OF "THE KAISER," FAMOUS WW1 CAPTURED GERMAN WAR PIGEON
BRED & TRAINED BY COL. CLIFFORD ALGY POUTRE, US ARMY LOFTS, FORT MONMOUTH, NJ

SPECIALTY-HOMING TO MOBILE LOFTS

National Defense: Gimpy

Published on Monday, Feb. 24, 1941
Time Magazine

From the day he got his feathers Gimpy was a superior bird. Master Sgt. Clifford Algy Poutre, the lean, leathery boss pigeon man at the Signal Corps pigeon lofts on the Jersey flats at Fort Monmouth, liked to say that the Army would hear from Gimpy some day. His breed was right. His father, old red Kaiser, captured in a German trench in the Argonne, is still the oldest military pigeon in the business (24 last month), and his Scotland-hatched mother had good blood in her.

Since Sgt. Poutre gave Gimpy the job of instructing younger pigeons last fall, he has turned out 150 graduates, trained to fly back to the trailer lofts as straight as a crow. Taken farther and farther away each day from Monmouth, he led them back unerringly to the loft, showed them that a pigeon can fly with a message capsule on leg or back. Last week, on his twisted right leg, three-year-old Gimpy stumped among a new class of 52 youngsters, fixed them with a hard eye.

To read Gimpy's entire story, please visit "The Pigeoneers" page on the website and scroll down: www.pigeonsincombat.com or please click here and scroll down.

All the best for 2010!

Kindest regards,

Al Croseri

www.pigeonsincombat.com

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