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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Online Library of Selected Images -- Picture Data

Photo #: NH 97523

"WAVES train Pigeons for 'Air Duty'"


"Training pigeons to earn their 'wings' as messengers from airborne Navy craft is the unique duty of a small number of WAVES now serving at air stations throughout the U.S."
"First leg of the pigeons' flight. Enclosed in a wood and canvas crate, two 'trainees' are taken aboard a gondola of a blimp by Seaman Second Class Robert Gumz ... as Specialists Virginia Thomas (left) ... and Ethel Haberman ... anxiously bid their winged charges Godspeed and best of luck on their training mission."
Photographed at Naval Air Station, Lighter-than-Air, Richmond, Virginia.
Quoted from the original caption released with this photograph effective 23 July 1944.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 91KB; 590 x 765 pixels

 

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6 March 2001