Air Mail Letterbox Hybrid
OHMIC: Sadly, this one has to go.
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Small cache located near the entrance to the Oak Hammock Marsh.
This is a Letterbox Hybrid cache and a stamp is provided to stamp
your logbook.
Please do not remove the stamp!
Messenger pigeons were used as early as 1150 in Baghdad and also
later by Genghis Khan. The Republic of Genoa equipped their system
of watch towers in the Mediterranean Sea with pigeon posts.
In 1860, Paul Reuter, who later founded Reuters press agency, used
a fleet of over 45 pigeons to deliver news and stock prices between
Brussels and Aachen, the terminals of early telegraph lines. The
outcome of the Battle of Waterloo was also first delivered by a
pigeon to England. During the Franco-Prussian War pigeons were used
to carry mail between besieged Paris and the French unoccupied
territory.
Possibly the first regular air mail service in the world was Mr.
Howie's Pigeon-Post service from the Auckland New Zealand suburb of
Newton to Great Barrier Island, starting in 1896. Certainly the
world’s first 'airmail' stamps were issued for the Great Barrier
Pigeon-Gram Service from 1898 to 1908.
They were used extensively during World War I, and one messenger
pigeon, Cher Ami, was awarded the French Croix de guerre for his
heroic service in delivering 12 important messages, despite having
been very badly injured.
During World War II, the Irish Paddy and the American G.I. Joe both
received the Dickin Medal, and were among 32 pigeons to receive
this medallion, for their gallantry and bravery in saving human
lives with their actions.
Eighty-two messenger pigeons were dropped into Holland with the
First Airborne Division Signals as part of Operation Market Garden
in World War II. The pigeons' loft was located in London which
would have required them to fly 240 miles to deliver their
messages. Also in World War II, hundreds of messenger pigeons with
the Confidential Pigeon Service were airdropped into northwest
Europe to serve as intelligence vectors for local resistance
agents.
Messenger pigeons were still employed in the 21st century by
certain remote police departments in Orissa state in eastern India
to provide emergency communication services following natural
disasters. In March 2002, it was announced that India's Police
Pigeon Service messenger system in Orissa was to be retired, due to
the expanded use of the Internet.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)