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This Day in History: G.I. Joe, WWII Hero

  • tara
  • Mar 24
  • 3 min read

On this day in 1943, an unusual sort of hero is born. Just six months later, he would go on to save the lives of at least 100 people during a fast-moving World War II campaign.

 

Wait. What? Just six months after his birth? Yes. You read that right. The hero in question was a homing pigeon named G.I. Joe. His stunning flight would make him the first American recipient of the PDSA Dickin Medal.

 

Impressively, he remained the only American recipient of the Medal for more than 70 years.

 

But G.I. Joe was just one of roughly 54,000 homing pigeons used by the U.S. Army during World War II.  These birds were remarkably capable. After all, pigeons can fly hundreds of miles at a time, and they are fast—as fast as 110 miles per hour, with the boost of a strong tailwind. Moreover, their movements are hard to detect, which meant that most messages sent by pigeon were successfully delivered.

 

The pigeons used in World War II were capable of even more than their counterparts in World War I. They were trained to fly at night and over large bodies of water. Some pigeons were trained to be “two-way.”

 

War pigeons had to be carefully selected, First Lieutenant Carter W. Clarke remarked, noting that “homing pigeons bear the same relation to ordinary pigeons that a carefully bred high-strung racing horse bears to a dray horse.”

 

Given the importance of careful selection, perhaps you won’t be surprised to hear that many well-bred pigeons were donated by American pigeon racers who wanted to contribute to the war effort.

 

Nevertheless, G.I. Joe stood out even among this remarkable group. He was “one of the greatest military pigeons in history,” a U.S. Army website concludes.

 

His historic flight came on October 18, 1943. Allied forces were then sweeping across Italy, liberating towns and villages as they went. But on that day, British troops had been struggling to defeat the enemy at the Italian village of Calvi Vecchia.

 

An air strike was called in. But then events took a sudden turn: The British liberated the village more quickly than anticipated! This left them in control of the village but also in danger of being taken out, accidentally, by friendly fire.

 

G.I. Joe was dispatched. What must the troops have thought as they watched that little bird speed away, weaving through enemy flak? Because G.I. Joe was small, about 75% the size of most pigeons.

 

Small or not, G.I. Joe made it to his destination just in the nick of time. He’d flown 20 miles in 20 minutes, delivering his message while bombers were already taxiing toward takeoff.

 

If his flight had been even five minutes longer, he could have been too late.

 

“This bird is credited with making the most outstanding flight by a USA army Pigeon in World War II,” the PDSA explains. “Making the 20 mile flight from British 10th Army HQ, in the same number of minutes, it brought a message which arrived just in time to save the lives of at least 100 Allied soldiers from being bombed by their own planes.”

 

After the war, G.I. Joe returned to the Army’s Churchill Loft at Fort Monmouth for several years. He was considered “king of the War Heroes Loft” and the model bird for size and type. He was also used for breeding, siring a number of young pigeons. Later, when the pigeon service was disbanded, G.I. Joe went to live at the Detroit Zoo until his passing at 18 years old.

 

“His wings are still,” newspapers reported at the time, “but never his glory from World War II.”

 

Yet another unexpected hero of World War II.

 

 

Primary Sources:

For media inquiries,

please contact Colonial Press

info at colonialpressonline dot com

Dallas, TX

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from Tara Ross

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© Copyright 2026 by Tara Ross.

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