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Pigeons, Chickens, Dolphins, Dogs Get Marching Orders in Iraq War By Siobhan McDonough Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. troops are getting an assist from a military menagerie in the Iraq war. Chickens, sea lions and a few good dolphins - Makai and Tacoma - have been in the fight. Dogs, good at alerting troops and relaying messages, are also sniffing out bombs in Iraq. Warfare has long depended on the fowl and the four-legged, whether they were elephants bearing javelin throwers on the battlefields of the ancient world, camels spooking Byzantine cavalry horses with their pungent smell, or...

BY RON HARRIS ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH LIVING SUPPORT AREA 7, Kuwait -- Operation Kuwaiti Field Chicken has been shut down, at least for now. The chickens are dead. Just more than a week after 43 chickens were brought here to ride into battle with the Marines, all but two have died. Most were buried in the soft sand outside of regiment headquarters. Small, wooden tombstones mark their graves. There is one for Captain Popeye, one for Pfc. King, another for Lance Cpl. Pecker and, finally, one marking the grave of The Unknown Chicken. The plan was to use the chickens...

LIVING SUPPORT AREA 7, Kuwait -- Operation Kuwaiti Field Chicken has been shut down, at least for now. The chickens are dead. Just more than a week after 43 chickens were brought here to ride into battle with the Marines, all but two have died. Most were buried in the soft sand outside of regiment headquarters. Small, wooden tombstones mark their graves. There is one for Captain Popeye, one for Pfc. King, another for Lance Cpl. Pecker and, finally, one marking the grave of The Unknown Chicken. The plan was to use the chickens the way miners once used caged...