Interesting Story
03-Sep-2003, 11:09 AM
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Interesting Story
Fliers at Barron Field shared skies with pigeons
By Bill Fairley
Special to the Star-Telegram
In the spring of 1918, Army planes circled over Barron Field near Everman as young pilots trained for air combat in World War I. Soon they would go to France.
Hundreds of other fliers were also based at Barron Field. Homing pigeons, crucial components of the Army Signal Corps' communication system, lived there in lofts that were as warm and comfortable as the fliers' quarters. They were cared for by full-time Army personnel.
Humans and birds were members of the U.S. Signal Corps, part of the U.S. Flying Service, which had yet to become the Army Air Corps.
The Royal Canadian Air Force had established Barron and two other airfields in Tarrant County -- Carruthers near Benbrook and Hicks near Saginaw -- because Texas' climate was better for flight training. But the RCAF turned the fields over to Americans in April 1918 when enough Canadian pilots were on their way to the war.
Alice E. Collins, an Army nurse barely out of her teens, was assigned to Barron Field's hospital staff. A small-town girl who had worked in her father's store in Arcadia, Mo., Collins started a daily journal to record the excitement of her new surroundings.
Collins vividly described the young pilots practicing maneuvers in JN4 "Flying Jennies" biplanes as instructors seated directly behind them shouted instructions through a speaking tube. And she recorded conversations she heard among the men with whom she served.
Years later, Collins' son Bill Leary began taping interviews with his mother and took material from her journals for a book about Barron Field from 1918 through 1920. Leary found that his mother recalled the time clearly and could add details to her journal accounts.
One of Collins' stories had to do with the pigeons.
A main character in this episode was Sgt. Fayrand Knorr, head keeper of the birds, who cared deeply for his charges, sleeping in a room connected to the lofts and taking care of their every need.
One day, Knorr was talking to men including Capt. Chauncy Wyley, a flying instructor who had shot down five German aircraft, making him an ace.
"When it comes to war, homing pigeons are the noblest animal I know," Wyley said.
The ace described a dogfight over France in which his Nieuport fighter was disabled, forcing him to land behind enemy lines. In the plane was a homing pigeon. Knowing it would be only a short time before Germans would come searching for him, he scribbled directions to his location near a French farmhouse and inserted the message into the capsule attached to one of the bird's legs.
Wyley said he watched as the bird set a course toward his airfield near Chamblain. He then hid. About dusk, Wyley said, he heard the sound of a familiar engine and saw a big DeHavilland flying his way. He leaped up and "began waving my arms like a Dutch windmill," he said. Wyley was quickly picked up and flown to safety.
A Lt. Winfree joined the conversation, saying that the Signal Corps had just borrowed a French idea for another use for the homing pigeon. The French attached miniature automatic cameras to the birds' legs. Released behind enemy lines, the birds flew home, snapping pictures of enemy troop deployments and heavy gun positions with every beat of their wings.
The serious discussion ended in guffaws when someone asked what a pigeon tasted like.
"Very much like chicken," Wyley replied with a straight face.
Knorr, who didn't joke around about his beloved birds, sputtered and his face turned red. It took him a moment to realize that the ace pilot was using him for another kind of target practice.
Source: Flyers of Barron Field by Bill Leary, Published by Yrael Publishing Co. for Information, Call (817) 292-3472.
www.dfw.com local paper
By Bill Fairley
Special to the Star-Telegram
In the spring of 1918, Army planes circled over Barron Field near Everman as young pilots trained for air combat in World War I. Soon they would go to France.
Hundreds of other fliers were also based at Barron Field. Homing pigeons, crucial components of the Army Signal Corps' communication system, lived there in lofts that were as warm and comfortable as the fliers' quarters. They were cared for by full-time Army personnel.
Humans and birds were members of the U.S. Signal Corps, part of the U.S. Flying Service, which had yet to become the Army Air Corps.
The Royal Canadian Air Force had established Barron and two other airfields in Tarrant County -- Carruthers near Benbrook and Hicks near Saginaw -- because Texas' climate was better for flight training. But the RCAF turned the fields over to Americans in April 1918 when enough Canadian pilots were on their way to the war.
Alice E. Collins, an Army nurse barely out of her teens, was assigned to Barron Field's hospital staff. A small-town girl who had worked in her father's store in Arcadia, Mo., Collins started a daily journal to record the excitement of her new surroundings.
Collins vividly described the young pilots practicing maneuvers in JN4 "Flying Jennies" biplanes as instructors seated directly behind them shouted instructions through a speaking tube. And she recorded conversations she heard among the men with whom she served.
Years later, Collins' son Bill Leary began taping interviews with his mother and took material from her journals for a book about Barron Field from 1918 through 1920. Leary found that his mother recalled the time clearly and could add details to her journal accounts.
One of Collins' stories had to do with the pigeons.
A main character in this episode was Sgt. Fayrand Knorr, head keeper of the birds, who cared deeply for his charges, sleeping in a room connected to the lofts and taking care of their every need.
One day, Knorr was talking to men including Capt. Chauncy Wyley, a flying instructor who had shot down five German aircraft, making him an ace.
"When it comes to war, homing pigeons are the noblest animal I know," Wyley said.
The ace described a dogfight over France in which his Nieuport fighter was disabled, forcing him to land behind enemy lines. In the plane was a homing pigeon. Knowing it would be only a short time before Germans would come searching for him, he scribbled directions to his location near a French farmhouse and inserted the message into the capsule attached to one of the bird's legs.
Wyley said he watched as the bird set a course toward his airfield near Chamblain. He then hid. About dusk, Wyley said, he heard the sound of a familiar engine and saw a big DeHavilland flying his way. He leaped up and "began waving my arms like a Dutch windmill," he said. Wyley was quickly picked up and flown to safety.
A Lt. Winfree joined the conversation, saying that the Signal Corps had just borrowed a French idea for another use for the homing pigeon. The French attached miniature automatic cameras to the birds' legs. Released behind enemy lines, the birds flew home, snapping pictures of enemy troop deployments and heavy gun positions with every beat of their wings.
The serious discussion ended in guffaws when someone asked what a pigeon tasted like.
"Very much like chicken," Wyley replied with a straight face.
Knorr, who didn't joke around about his beloved birds, sputtered and his face turned red. It took him a moment to realize that the ace pilot was using him for another kind of target practice.
Source: Flyers of Barron Field by Bill Leary, Published by Yrael Publishing Co. for Information, Call (817) 292-3472.
www.dfw.com local paper
interesting indeed 
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