By Anthony Giger

“Cher Ami and the Lost Patrol”

The big guns were booming from the American and German forces, between them was the Black Forest. The shells were causing a death toll within the Black Forest where the Lost Patrol was trenched in. The Lost Patrol also called “The Rainbow Division”. The battle was called Meusse Argonne Campaign.

My father Corporal Harris Giger was wounded twice in 1919, in the Black Forest battle.  There was no radio communication. The Americans used pigeons to carry out messages. The Captain of the Lost Patrol wrote the message “Stop the bombing you’re killing us” and strapped it to the pigeon’s leg.

The Germans knew the Americans were desperate and positioned their sharpshooters. The pigeon was released. The sharpshooters fired their rifles and shot off one of the pigeon’s legs. The message was still attached and the bombing stopped when the Americans received the message.

The pigeon named “Cher Ami” became a hero in American history. There were many pigeons decorated in World War I.

Later President Clinton sent my father the Purple Heart.