A German pigeon began life as a WWI messenger, was captured in France, crossed the Atlantic and became a US military hero

In a museum collection in Washington, D.C., sits an unusual veteran of the First and Second World Wars. Kaiser was a German homing pigeon, hatched in Koblenz in 1917 and captured by American soldiers before the First World War had ended. Instead of being returned to Germany, he was brought to the United States, where his military career took an unexpected turn. He spent decades in American army lofts, fathered generations of military pigeons and eventually became a familiar figure at ceremonies and public events. According to the National Museum United States Army, by the time he died in 1949, Kaiser had lived far longer than most pigeons and had spent much of his life in military custody. His remains are now preserved at the National Museum of American History.Kaiser was hatched during the opening months of 1917 at the loft of Hans Zimmerman in Koblenz, Germany. He was only five days old when an aluminium identification ring was fitted around his left leg. The small band carried the Imperial German crown and the number 17-0350-47, with the first two digits indicating his year of birth.At about six weeks old, he was handed over to the Imperial German Army. Pigeons had become an important part of military communications during the First World War, particularly where ordinary methods could be knocked out by artillery. Telephone and telegraph wires were vulnerable to shelling, while messengers travelling on foot or horseback faced obvious risks. A trained homing pigeon could carry a short message back towards a fixed destination without needing a road, wire or clear route through the battlefield.Kaiser was trained for that job and eventually found himself flying between German positions in northern France.The United States entered the war in April 1917, around the time Kaiser was beginning his military service. Within months, the American Army was developing its own pigeon service.By the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in September 1918, hundreds of American military pigeons were being used alongside the troops. The birds carried messages from units operating close to the fighting, offering commanders another means of communication when conventional systems failed.Kaiser’s wartime career changed in October. American soldiers from the 28th Infantry Division captured a German trench position in the Argonne Forest. Among the equipment left behind was a basket containing 10 German pigeons. Kaiser was one of them.He was not released when the guns fell silent. The Armistice came on 11 November 1918, but Kaiser remained in American hands with the other captured birds.The American Army soon decided that some captured German pigeons could serve a useful public purpose. Distinguished American birds and captured German birds were brought home, where they could appear in exhibitions and recruiting events.On 17 July 1919, Kaiser arrived in the United States aboard the transport ship USS F.J. Luckenbach, along with 21 other German pigeons.He was displayed publicly during the months that followed, but his next destination was less ceremonial. Kaiser was eventually transferred to the Signal Corps Pigeon Centre at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey.There, his circumstances became rather different from those of an ordinary prisoner. He was given a mate and became part of the army's breeding programme. The pigeon captured in a German trench was now helping produce birds for the American military.The name Kaiser also came during his years in American custody. It referred to the German emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, whose reign had ended with Germany's defeat and the collapse of the German monarchy.By the 1930s, Kaiser had become the last surviving German pigeon still held by the American military from the First World War. His age did not prevent his descendants from becoming useful racers.Then came another war. When the United States entered the Second World War, pigeons from Kaiser’s bloodline were sent into military service in Europe and the Pacific. Kaiser himself was too old for such work. Instead, he was moved to Camp Crowder in Missouri, where the army operated its pigeon breeding and training centre.By 1945, he had fathered more than 75 birds for the army.His treatment reflected his unusual status. Kaiser lived in a separate white loft with his mate, Lady Belle. During cold weather, the army even provided an electric heater for the ageing bird and his companion.It was a long way from the trenches of northern France.After the Second World War, Kaiser returned to Fort Monmouth as his active military career wound down.His age had by then become something of an attraction. On 27 February 1948, the army marked his 31st birthday. Children from the nursery school at the fort held a party for him, with Kaiser serving as the guest of honour. The celebrations did not stop there.Later that year, an American Legion group in Los Angeles, First Retread Post No. 667, made Kaiser an honorary member because of his service across two wars. A special gold leg band was produced for him, engraved with his name and the post's designation.For a bird that had begun life carrying a German military identification number, it was an unusual second identity.Kaiser was still being taken to public events when he was in his early thirties. On 20 January 1949, he travelled to Washington, D.C., for President Harry Truman's inauguration. He appeared as part of a Signal Corps exhibition alongside two other famous military pigeons, G.I. Joe and Jungle Joe.It would be one of his final appearances.Kaiser died at Fort Monmouth on Halloween night that same year. He was 32 years old, having survived longer than the German emperor after whom he had been named and, according to the museum's account, outliving every other homing pigeon known to have served in the First World War.His military value had long since shifted from carrying messages to producing the next generation of army pigeons.Kaiser himself was gone, but his bloodline remained in military lofts for years. His descendants served during the Second World War, carrying forward a lineage that had begun with a young German pigeon bred in Koblenz. When the US Army eventually ended its pigeon service in 1957, birds descended from Kaiser were sold to members of the public.That meant his family line did not disappear with the closure of the army's pigeon programme. Descendants continued to be kept in private lofts, including birds bred for racing.Kaiser’s story therefore did not end with his death. It continued through the birds he had produced and through the records, photographs and objects that remained behind.