Army Replaces Defective Radios With Carrier Pigeons, Smoke Signals

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by SGT B @ Army Replaces Defective Radios With Carrier Pigeons, Smoke Signals | The Duffel Blog

Carrier Pigeon Pack in Action

FORT BLISS, TX- Following the failure of a planned communications system that would help all military members communicate more effectively, the Army is now conducting research and development on a new system which leaders say “will take military communications into the future.”
The Joint Tactical Radio System, or JTRS, a program designed to allow all four branches to communicate seamlessly, was cancelled late last year by the House of Representatives Committee on Armed Services. Costing $15 billion over 15 years, the JTRS was seen by many in Congress as a waste of taxpayer dollars.

Despite the setback, the Department of the Army has used the opportunity to explore better options for efficient communications on the battlefield.

Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno recently spoke with the Duffel Blog concerning the Army’s new direction.

“We basically blew the entire communications budget for the next twenty years on the JTRS. Now we have troops with no effective means of communication. I tasked the best and brightest in the Army to come up with a solution to this commo quagmire and the results are nothing less than stellar.”

The new system, dubbed KITDFOHS (Kinetic Internal Directly Functional Operational Homing Science), involves the use of revolutionary “direct message deliverers”, also known as hand and arm signals, carrier pigeons, yelling, and smoke signals.

Chief Information Officer of the Army Lieutenant General Susan Lawrence informed the Duffel Blog that each of these systems have their pros and cons.

“Smoke signals are great for the troops to contact each other in the field. It’s much better than some stupid old radio and only limited by how far the troops can see.”

“Carrier pigeons have replaced all forms of e-mail for the Army as well as becoming the go to solution for long distance communication,” she added. “This is due in part to GEN Odierno tasking me with cutting any unnecessary spending on communications to avoid further problems like those caused by the JTRS.”

Sergeant Major Kevin McCrary, the enlisted adviser to LTG Lawrence, praised Lawrence’s innovation in the field of communication. “She’s truly a visionary. Without radios it seemed hopeless for the boots on the ground. With her quick thinking she was able to invent several new forms of communication.”

McCrary added, “I would have never thought that yelling and hand and arm signals would be so useful. Now, instead of having a radio in an MRAP, the troops just have the lowest ranking stand on top and relay messages to other trucks using hand and arm signals.”

Soldiers in Afghanistan have found implementing these new methods somewhat troublesome. Staff Sergeant Chad Moreno, an infantry squad leader, explained the troubles faced by the soldiers on the basic level.

“Hand and arm signals, OK. Yelling, OK. But fuck, carrier pigeons and smoke signals? Now on patrol one of my guys has to carry a cage on his back with pigeons in it. Another troop is stuck carrying kindling and flint everywhere we go. Have you ever tried to build a fire while taking fire? It ain’t easy.”

He continued, “These pigeons are the nastiest creatures I’ve ever seen. Not to mention anytime we go through a market all the Afghans ask ‘how much, how much?’ Sheesh, I have a hard enough time doing anything with this bullshit ROE, now I have to deal with this shit?”

Despite reservations, SSG Moreno did stress some of the benefits of the new system.

“While it’s pretty tough to have to carry this stuff, it makes for a good punishment technique. Whoever pisses me off is getting pigeon shit all over their gear by the end of the patrol.”

 

[waltky]

The message has foiled the experts, who have appealed to the public for help...

Has World War II carrier pigeon message been cracked?
16 December 2012 - An encrypted World War II message found in a fire place strapped to the remains of a dead carrier pigeon may have been cracked by a Canadian enthusiast.

Gord Young, from Peterborough, in Ontario, says it took him 17 minutes to decypher the message after realising a code book he inherited was the key. Mr Young says the 1944 note uses a simple World War I code to detail German troop positions in Normandy. GCHQ says it would be interested to see his findings.

Blocks of code

The message was discovered by 74-year-old David Martin when he was renovating the chimney of his house in Bletchingley, Surrey. Among the rubbish, he found parts of a dead pigeon - including a leg, attached to which was a red canister. Inside the canister was a thin piece of paper with the words "Pigeon Service" at the top and 27 handwritten blocks of code. The message - which attracted world-wide media attention - was put in the hands of Britain's top codebreakers at GCHQ at the beginning of November, but they have been unable to unlock the puzzle. They remain convinced the message is impossible to decrypt, although a spokesman said they would be happy to look at Mr Young's proposed solution,. "We stand by our statement of 22 November 2012 that without access to the relevant codebooks and details of any additional encryption used, the message will remain impossible to decrypt," he said. "Similarly it is also impossible to verify any proposed solutions, but those put forward without reference to the original cryptographic material are unlikely to be correct."

However, Mr Young, the editor of a local history group, Lakefield Heritage Research, believes "folks are trying to over-think this matter". "It's not complex," he says. Using his great-uncle's Royal Flying Corp [92 Sqd-Canadian] aerial observers' book, he said he was able to work out the note in minutes. He believes it was written by 27-year-old Sgt William Stott, a Lancashire Fusilier, who had been dropped into Normandy - with pigeons - to report on German positions. Sgt Stott was killed a few weeks later and is buried in a Normandy war cemetery.

'WWI trainer'

The code is simple, relying heavily on acronyms, said Mr Young. Some 250,000 pigeons were used during the war by all services and each was given an identity number. There are two pigeon identification numbers in the message - NURP.40.TW.194 and NURP.37.OK.76. Mr Young says Sgt Stott would have sent both these birds - with identical messages - at the same time, to make sure the information got through. "Essentially, Stott was taught by a WWI trainer; a former Artillery observer-spotter. You can deduce this from the spelling of Serjeant which dates deep in Brits military and as late as WWI," he said. "Seeing that spelling almost automatically tells you that the acronyms are going to be similar to those of WWI. "You will see the World War I artillery acronyms are shorter, but, that is because, you have to remember, that, the primitive radio-transmitters that sent the Morse code were run by batteries, and, those didn't last much more than a half-hour tops, probably less. "Thus all World War I codes had to be S-n-S, Short-n-Sweet. "And, as you can clearly see, Stott got a major report out on a pigeon."

Source

See also:

Remains of pigeon found carrying WWII message
Fri, Nov 2, 2012 — Experts say the skeletal remains of a pigeon discovered in the chimney of a house in southern England carried a mysterious, long-forgotten message from World War II.

Historians at Britain's Second World War-era code breaking headquarters say the bird was almost certainly returning from Nazi-occupied France during the June 1944 D-Day invasion.

Bletchley Park says that a radio blackout imposed on Allied forces at the time meant that messages about the progress of the invasion were dispatched by pigeon across the Channel.

What the message says remains unknown. It was coded, an unusual measure generally reserved for the most sensitive secrets.

Bletchley Park said Thursday that one of its curators is now trying to unravel the message using World War II logbooks.

Remains of pigeon found carrying WWII message - Yahoo! News