Weird uses for animals in the military

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Sounds more like urban legend type stuff. How would they know the cat lost consciousness half way down?

It isn't a myth, there are documents to back them up, unfortunately.

Then, reputable source, rather than blogs?

edit: After a cursory search on google, I found nothing even hinting at this being true. Call me incredibly skeptical if you will, but how the hell would a cat even recognize that the thing below them was the ocean & therefore wet water? Sounds like a tall tale to me, one that's been repeated numerous times. However, repeating it a lot of times does not make it true.

The reports come from OSS documents.
The cats passed out from high altitude not from seeing water.

 

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Sounds more like urban legend type stuff. How would they know the cat lost consciousness half way down?

It isn't a myth, there are documents to back them up, unfortunately.

Then, reputable source, rather than blogs?

edit: After a cursory search on google, I found nothing even hinting at this being true. Call me incredibly skeptical if you will, but how the hell would a cat even recognize that the thing below them was the ocean & therefore wet water? Sounds like a tall tale to me, one that's been repeated numerous times. However, repeating it a lot of times does not make it true.

The reports come from OSS documents.
The cats passed out from high altitude not from seeing water.

Yeah, that's what I was going to post. :laugh: @ losing consciousness because they see water. That's not at all what I thought when I read they lost consciousness.

 

[Rumpltzer]

Cats are delicious.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Sounds more like urban legend type stuff. How would they know the cat lost consciousness half way down?

It isn't a myth, there are documents to back them up, unfortunately.

Then, reputable source, rather than blogs?

edit: After a cursory search on google, I found nothing even hinting at this being true. Call me incredibly skeptical if you will, but how the hell would a cat even recognize that the thing below them was the ocean & therefore wet water? Sounds like a tall tale to me, one that's been repeated numerous times. However, repeating it a lot of times does not make it true.

The reports come from OSS documents.
The cats passed out from high altitude not from seeing water.

Wow, you're doing great! Again: reputable source that says this story came from OSS documents. Til then, I'm calling shens. It's ridiculous to believe that cats would recognize the difference between the targets & water at high altitude. It's ridiculous to believe that they would expect cats NOT to pass out at such high altitudes. And, even if released at an altitude where the cats wouldn't lose consciousness, it's still ridiculous to claim "since the cats had a bad habit of becoming unconscious mid-drop." If it's due to the altitude, loss of consciousness would occur almost immediately, long before the cats were released. And, if they have the technology attached to the cats to detect that the cats lost consciousness, then why the hell didn't they just make little flight suits, complete with a tiny oxygen canister for the cats? ( )

Tell a tall enough story & people believe it sometimes. Oh, and the "cats were unconscious when they hit the ground that's how they figured it out - they were strapped to the bottom of bombs. You really think the cats survived?!"

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Sounds more like urban legend type stuff. How would they know the cat lost consciousness half way down?

It isn't a myth, there are documents to back them up, unfortunately.

Then, reputable source, rather than blogs?

edit: After a cursory search on google, I found nothing even hinting at this being true. Call me incredibly skeptical if you will, but how the hell would a cat even recognize that the thing below them was the ocean & therefore wet water? Sounds like a tall tale to me, one that's been repeated numerous times. However, repeating it a lot of times does not make it true.

The reports come from OSS documents.
The cats passed out from high altitude not from seeing water.

Wow, you're doing great! Again: reputable source that says this story came from OSS documents. Til then, I'm calling shens. It's ridiculous to believe that cats would recognize the difference between the targets & water at high altitude. It's ridiculous to believe that they would expect cats NOT to pass out at such high altitudes. And, even if released at an altitude where the cats wouldn't lose consciousness, it's still ridiculous to claim "since the cats had a bad habit of becoming unconscious mid-drop." If it's due to the altitude, loss of consciousness would occur almost immediately, long before the cats were released. And, if they have the technology attached to the cats to detect that the cats lost consciousness, then why the hell didn't they just make little flight suits, complete with a tiny oxygen canister for the cats? ( )

Tell a tall enough story & people believe it sometimes. Oh, and the "cats were unconscious when they hit the ground that's how they figured it out - they were strapped to the bottom of bombs. You really think the cats survived?!"

that is my first thought as well.

However, I find it within the realm of plausibility to imagine that DoDers might assume that such were possible and worthy of testing in a brainstorming session--whether or not it was ever tested.

 

[Miramonti]

That's your taxidermy dollars at work.

 

[Gigantopithecus]

Mine-sweeping dolphins.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: zinfamous
that is my first thought as well.

However, I find it within the realm of plausibility to imagine that DoDers might assume that such were possible and worthy of testing in a brainstorming session--whether or not it was ever tested.

That's it though - after serious consideration, the idea would be too full of holes. Modelworks, I can save you the time and trouble - if you just do a google search for "cat bombs", OSS, and exclude the phrase "needed a way to guide bombs", then suddenly you're going to be down to less than 20 hits. Virtually every telling of this story is simply a copy and paste from another site, as is your OP in this thread.

Oh, and then you can search for "cat bombs" OSS "needed a way to guide bombs" references

You'll strike out there as well.


Shenanigans. Face it, you got suckered by the story too. Also, read the story again: the information was available that the cats lost consciousness, but absolutely no details, like how they were supposed to be strapped to the bomb.

edit: but don't feel too bad, a lot of people got suckered in by that story. My rule of thumb: I don't believe most of what I read online until I investigate it myself a little bit (else rely on people I trust to investigate it.) Believing stories like this is how urban legends get created. Generally, no one is able to trace it back to the original source, and despite the popularity of some stories, all those associated with the original incident (like an entire town), all keep quiet about it and don't come forward to reveal themselves as the true source of the story.

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: DrPizza


Shenanigans. Face it, you got suckered by the story too. Also, read the story again: the information was available that the cats lost consciousness, but absolutely no details, like how they were supposed to be strapped to the bomb.

After reading about things like bat bombs and cats that were implanted with listening devices I can't find any reason to not believe that they would not try to drop cats from a plane with the idea that when a cat is in water it swims for something to get out of the water.


The internet is not the only source of information. People still use libraries and books for a reason.

 

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Sounds more like urban legend type stuff. How would they know the cat lost consciousness half way down?

I wouldn't be surprised if the OSS really tried it. They experimented with weird things.

Ex: They tried to use pigeons to guide bombs to their target. Basically, they tried to condition the birds to recognize the target from hundreds of different aerial photographs. Each time the bird recognized the target building, he was supposed to peck the picture. They built compartments on the front of the bombs that had glass windows with a primitive sensor system. The idea was that the bird would spot the target and continuously peck at the sensors, telling the bomb where it was relative to its target. A series of fins would steer the bomb and, if it worked, the government would have cheap guidance weapons. Of course, this never actually worked, but it was definitely tried.

The whole thing was run by BF Skinner, a famous psychologist. In case you think I'm full of shit, here's the wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon

 

[destrekor]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Sounds more like urban legend type stuff. How would they know the cat lost consciousness half way down?

It isn't a myth, there are documents to back them up, unfortunately.

Then, reputable source, rather than blogs?

edit: After a cursory search on google, I found nothing even hinting at this being true. Call me incredibly skeptical if you will, but how the hell would a cat even recognize that the thing below them was the ocean & therefore wet water? Sounds like a tall tale to me, one that's been repeated numerous times. However, repeating it a lot of times does not make it true.

The reports come from OSS documents.
The cats passed out from high altitude not from seeing water.

Wow, you're doing great! Again: reputable source that says this story came from OSS documents. Til then, I'm calling shens. It's ridiculous to believe that cats would recognize the difference between the targets & water at high altitude. It's ridiculous to believe that they would expect cats NOT to pass out at such high altitudes. And, even if released at an altitude where the cats wouldn't lose consciousness, it's still ridiculous to claim "since the cats had a bad habit of becoming unconscious mid-drop." If it's due to the altitude, loss of consciousness would occur almost immediately, long before the cats were released. And, if they have the technology attached to the cats to detect that the cats lost consciousness, then why the hell didn't they just make little flight suits, complete with a tiny oxygen canister for the cats? ( )

Tell a tall enough story & people believe it sometimes. Oh, and the "cats were unconscious when they hit the ground that's how they figured it out - they were strapped to the bottom of bombs. You really think the cats survived?!"

Well, the OSS did some crazy shit, and in the past few years (iirc), most of the OSS documents have been declassified.
However, I'm not finding any detailed information on this kitty-guided bomb.

Now, it could have been a simple one or two time trial, with no official project codename. With the BBC having included a short bullet-point describing kitty-guided bombs in WW2, within an article about military projects, that lends more weight to the story.

However, it might just be a long story that was repeated multiple times, and seems to be an mix of Project Acoustic Kitty and the Pigeon Bomb, both very real funded projects, and both attempted in real world use.

It's possible the Kitty Bomb was attempted, but just seems to be more of a mix of real projects, including the Bat Bomb, and tall tales passed down from people, all possibly stemming from a real photo of a kitty on a bomb. With only that one photo to go on, and no detailed sources on the web, it's hard to tell. Hell, there's wiki pages for all these other projects, such as the Bat Bomb, Project ORCON (the pigeon bomb), and Project Acoustic Kitty (the CIA bugged cat), but not anything on any cat bomb.

 

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Tell a tall enough story & people believe it sometimes. Oh, and the "cats were unconscious when they hit the ground that's how they figured it out - they were strapped to the bottom of bombs. You really think the cats survived?!"

I think they probably thought of this. You just misunderstood the scenario.

 

[91TTZ]

I'm with DrPizza on this one. Reeks of an urban legend.

 

[Iron Woode]

the whole story is ludicrous and defies logic.

how is a cat supposed to affect the targeting of a 200+lb bomb?

It sounds more like something a 10 year old would come up with while BSing with his friends while trying to invent silly weapons.

 

[Lean L]

Originally posted by: BoomerD
Watched a really stupid (but fun to watch) movie called "Wanted" the other night. Starred Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie...

One of the "weapons" used were "rat bombs."

Pretty clever.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0493464/

Stupid is an understatement. Although it was funny due to the fact, I'll give you that. That scene with the bullet making its way around the room in a perfect circle and penetrating 10 ppl's skulls had me rofling.

 

[KeithP]

Here is a video on the bat bomb if anyone is interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDX9rRuHcn8

-KeithP