Boone Electric Cooperative, Amp Room

7:00 PM

Contact: buckinghame@missouri.edu

Neosho, Missouri found itself the home to Camp Crowder, a US Army Signal Corps replacement training center, built in 1942. In 1943, the Army Signal Pigeon Corps moved from New Jersey to Missouri and began operations. Camp Crowder became the training and breeding home to the pigeon corps. Several of the ten Signal Pigeon Companies the Army created in WWII were built and training at Camp Crowder. In 1946 the pigeons moved back to New Jersey, leaving an unusual history in the Missouri base that has long been forgotten.

The presentation covers the Pigeon Corps from 1917-1957, with an emphasis on the training program at Camp Crowder. It also covers the unusual field formation of the Signal Pigeon Company, the only Army formation capable of self-sustaining its own staffing due to breeding of birds. Stories of hero birds are also told. The program survived through the Korean War and was disbanded in 1957, 40 years after its creation.

Tim Scherrer, a native of Quincy, Illinois, earned both his B.A. and M.A. in History from Truman State University, where he was also named a Distinguished Military Graduate in the Army ROTC program. He also pursued additional study at University of Missouri–Columbia.

Scherrer has held a range of educational and leadership roles, including work at Truman State University, teaching Military Science and Military History at the University of Missouri–Columbia, and serving as Director of College Placement/Counseling and Instructor of American and Military History at Missouri Military Academy. He currently serves as Dean of Academics at Father Tolton Catholic High School in Columbia, Missouri.

A retired Lieutenant Colonel, Scherrer served 28 years in the United States Army Reserve as a Military Intelligence Officer. His honors include the Knowlton Award (2015) and induction into Truman State’s Army ROTC Hall of Fame. He curently resides in Columbia, Missouri.