My (very small) Pigeon Section "collection"

[Eric Queen]

For some reason I have always been interested in the Pigeon Service (usually associated with the US Army Signal Corps)

 

See quite a bit of the different Pigeon Carriers, Drop Cages, Cages, etc. but have never found much in the way of smalls. 

 

This, such as it is, is about the extent of my Pigeon "collection". 

 

Really hoping to see more from other members. Please feel free to post to this thread. 

[Wake1941]

Fantastic stuff, I have never seen the lapel pin. 

[Tony V]

Eric

 

   Very nice collection ! Thank you for sharing

 

Tony

 

[carrabassett]

Neat stuff! Thanks for showing it to us all!

[manayunkman]

After over half a century of buying selling and collecting i have never seen anything like it.

 

Amazing collection 

[Brian Dentino]

Some really great items posted from your collection Eric!  I live in an area right now of my hometown that was a popular Belgian/Italian neighborhood back in the day and can remember coming to see friends over on the West End on my bike as a kid and almost all the houses in this part of town had a rabbit hutch and/or a pigeon coop in their backyard!  In fact, back in the "day" there used to be pigeon clubs that would hold races and other competitions here in town.  Very cool to see your collection and always keep my eye open for animal related militaria.  Unfortunately, most of the old Belgian/Italian folks that would have these items around are long passed by the time I got around to collecting!

[Eric Queen]

Thanks for all the comments. I appreciate it. 

 

The last thing I have came up on eBay last year for 40 bucks and I just couldn't pass on it. I thought it was interesting because I honestly did not know that the Navy even had a Pigeon Section. From what I can tell this is correspondence between Ronald Lyman (who seems to have been a breeder/racer of pigeons) and Cliff Harrington who was part of Pigeon Section at the US Naval Base at Cape May, NJ. Lyman must have donated some of his pigeons to the Navy as he seems to be telling Harrington that a certain number of the birds had been returned. Why Harrington would frame this letter, I don't know. Another, earlier letter, was glued to the backside of the frame. 

[Eric Queen]

Also included were two 8 x 10 framed photos of two of the pigeons. Am guessing the AU49 WCC 881 is some kind of registration number. 

[Backtheattack]

Great collection items. Have never seen such before. Thanks for posting.

[Kurt Barickman]

Great items and have never had the opportunity to see these rare items and that goes for all your dog items too; glad that we have this separate category for animals now.

 

Kurt

[suwanneetrader]

Your war dog items have been exceptional but the pigeon collectables are super fantastic !  Richard

[alpino]

Great stuff! Do you have any birds? They are a lot of fun, their flying heavenly.

Used to race the ones my son begged me to get.... then he discovered hockey girls football girls hunting & pickup trucks

they can be considered military vehicles

I debate making a MB jeep trailer pigeon loft

[Eric Queen]

My thanks again to all who took the time to comment. Much appreciated. 

 

Thank you Alpino. No, I have never owned any birds myself but have had many K9 companions over the years. 

 

As a follow up to the first part of this thread I recently picked up this neat piece. An original Christmas Menu from the 281st Signal Pigeon Co. 1942

[Eric Queen]

If you take a look at the letter/envelope I posted from the 281st, you will see it is from Sgt. Edward C. Johnson.

 

The neat thing about this menu is that it lists all the men inside. You can see Sgt. Johnson's name listed on the second page. Pretty cool. 

[alpino]

LOVE the pic of the 281st !

There are several books about the "pigeon men" US Army in WW2, their memoirs .

There are also a few US FMs about pigeons