Pigeon Hero

What makes Cher Ami’s story so powerful is that it flips our normal idea of heroism. World War I is full of generals, medals, and giant battles—but here, the survival of an entire unit hinged on a single, badly wounded bird. And this isn’t legend: the “Lost Battalion” incident in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive is documented, as is the fact that their own artillery was accidentally shelling them. Carrier pigeons were standard military tech, but Cher Ami’s flight was anything but standard—she was hit, blinded in one eye, and had a leg nearly blown off, yet still made it back to her loft with the coordinates that stopped the friendly fire. For that, she received the Croix de Guerre and a place in the Smithsonian. It’s a reminder that in industrial war, courage didn’t always look like a charging soldier; sometimes it looked like a small, damaged bird still flying straight.