Carrier Carrier Pigeons

Admiral Alfred Melville Pride's early interest in aviation was followed by his enlistment in Naval Reserve for World War I in 1917, aviation training, and brief overseas duty in France. In 1922, Pride joined the commissioning crew of the United State's first aircraft carrier, the USS Langley (CV-1), as one of her aviators.

Pride recalled many years later one of the little-known facts about the earlier carrier—that when the Langley was built equipped with a carrier pigeon loft. Admiral Pride explains why in an edited excerpt below.