Pigeon NBC.

This is coolbert:

Canary in the coal mine? No! Pigeon in the cage! Iraq 2003!

Never heard of this before. NBC = Nuclear, Biological, Chemical. Weapons of Mass Destruction [WMD].

"That time the 1st Marine Division brought pigeons to the 2003 invasion of Iraq"

From "Task & Purpose" the article by BY DAVID ROZA | PUBLISHED MAR 17, 2020.

"When it came to detecting nuclear, biological and chemical agents, Marine Corps planners decided they something more low-tech. Really low-tech."

CAGED PIGEONS IN THIS INSTANCE. PROVIDE INSTANTANEOUS AND 100 %  ACCURATE INDICATION AND ALARM OF WMD ATTACK. ESPECIALLY WITH REGARD TO THE USE OF CHEMICAL WEAPONRY SUCH AS NERVE AGENT.

Pigeons all of a sudden plop over dead you are under attack from poisonous gas. Mask!!

U.S Marines Iraq 2003 their fear that unit-level electronic chemical detection devices would malfunction and not work according to standard. False alarms all over the place!

"Well, as explained by the Marine Corps History Division in its 2006 account With the 1st Marine Division in Iraq, 2003, the division was worried that petroleum-based vapors would throw off the effectiveness of the usual systems the Corps used to detect NBC agents."

Pigeons yeoman service Iraq. Surviving birds deserve a decoration and comfortable retirement. They work also for free the only requirement being some water and seed as supplied daily. And if you run short of food, you can ALWAYS eat the pigeon.

coolbert.