4 ms·

The U.S. Army’s “Camel Corps” Experiment (2021)

31 points by Thevet 4y ago

chongli 4y ago
Ahh, damn. I thought this was from the 90’s. I totally would have believed the U.S. Army would experiment with camels in the 90’s or early 00’s. Kinda like how the Navy was experimenting with dolphins.
- speed_spread 4y ago
  If dolphins are used intercept torpedoes, what would camels be trained to do? Actually, can you train a camel at all? All I can think of is badgers finding and disarming IEDs by chewing on wires.
skellyclock 4y ago
Camels were also used in Australian expeditions into the deserts. Just googled and it turns out there aren't any wild camels in the USA anymore. Here in Australia they thrived and became a giga-pest which require lots of culling. I think Arabs brought them over when they built some train tracks in the western states and then just let them go wild when motorised transport became a thing. Mostly used for target practice and cheap meat nowadays.
- ggm 4y ago
  The camels and the Afghan camel drivers were both imported during a time of explicitly racist immigration policies. Both stayed, and a descendant of a camelteer called Bob Katter is a member of the Australian parliament, and as we say, as mad as a cut snake. You're not wrong about camels being yet another feral pest in Australia. We also host camel auctions selling racing camel breeding stock to the middle east.
  - kuhewa 4y ago
    > We also host camel auctions selling racing camel breeding stock to the middle east. Didn't know about this, are there just good genes in the feral population or are desirable ones being purpose bred
    - ggm 4y ago
      Not sure, I think it may be simply a good wild gene pool.
shantnutiwari 4y ago
I really liked this article-- it was featured on Wikipedia front page if I remember correctly. (edit, no it wasnt it was actually this, which talks about the same thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Camel_Corps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Camel_Corps) I found parallels with software engineering, where a "perfect" solution (camel) might be technically possible, but never gets implmented becase of the culture change required; sometimes the existing solution (mules) is good enough. https://new.pythonforengineers.com/blog/what-the-united-states-camel-corps-taught-me-about-software-engineering/ https://new.pythonforengineers.com/blog/what-the-united-stat...
- Maursault 4y ago
  > where a "perfect" solution (camel) What? Never heard that one. But I have heard a horse built by committee is a camel; if not obvious, this is highly critical of committees. Also, O'Reilly uses the camel to symbolize Perl because... Perl is kind of ugly. This is true. O’Reilly’s symbol for Perl is the camel, the animal on the cover of the venerable Camel book (also known as Programming Perl), a cousin of this Llama (and her sister, the Alpaca). Camels are kind of ugly, too. But they work hard, even in tough conditions. Camels get the job done despite all difficulties even when they look bad and smell worse and sometimes spit at you. Perl is a little like that.[1] Google just informed me that a camel can be symbolic of travel and journeys, wisdom, endurance, survival, service, self-sufficiency, conservation, and, of course, stamina. Camels are also sometimes crude in odor and behavior, but their value far outweighs their lack of etiquette. But I have never heard of referring to a perfect solution as a camel. Did you just invent this, or is it a common symbol in programming for a perfect solution? [1] https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/learning-perl-fourth/0596101058/ch01s02.html https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/learning-perl-fourth/05...
type0 4y ago
One famous camel, likely a myth created during WW2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuznechik_(camel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuznechik_(camel)
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
JKCalhoun 4y ago
The monument to Hi Jolly piqued my interest when traveling through Quartzite, Arizona. I have to thank the "Roadside America" app for pulling up these little road-trip oddities for me. That "Hi Jolly" was the best the American's could do with his actual name, Hadji Ali, was amusing. More intriguing (if fanciful) was the thought that there might still be those camels (or rather their offspring) roaming the deserts of Arizona to this day.... https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/hi-jolly-monument https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/hi-jolly-monument
chrisseaton 4y ago
Not sure this is as unique as the article makes out - camels were a pretty common animal for armies, including into the Second World War.
- coldacid 4y ago
  Perhaps throughout Eurasia, but apart from this experiment, any camels used by the US Army would have been seconded by allied forces or "requisitioned" from locals.
- nicbou 4y ago
  Camels fought from Stalingrad to Berlin with the Red Army. And one very famous bear fought in Italy with the Poles.
- unmole 4y ago
  The Indian Border Security Force uses camels to this day for patrolling along the Thar.
wrp 4y ago
I know of one serious movie about Army camels, Southwest Passage (1954), and two comedies, One Little Indian (1973) and Hawmps! (1976). One of the most interesting bits of folklore is the story of the Red Ghost of Arizona. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Ghost_(folklore) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Ghost_(folklore))
- pram 4y ago
  A skeleton being strapped to the camel is wild!

31 points by Thevet 4y ago

Ahh, damn. I thought this was from the 90’s. I totally would have believed the U.S. Army would experiment with camels in the 90’s or early 00’s. Kinda like how the Navy was experimenting with dolphins.

speed_spread 4y ago
If dolphins are used intercept torpedoes, what would camels be trained to do? Actually, can you train a camel at all? All I can think of is badgers finding and disarming IEDs by chewing on wires.

skellyclock 4y ago

Camels were also used in Australian expeditions into the deserts. Just googled and it turns out there aren't any wild camels in the USA anymore. Here in Australia they thrived and became a giga-pest which require lots of culling. I think Arabs brought them over when they built some train tracks in the western states and then just let them go wild when motorised transport became a thing. Mostly used for target practice and cheap meat nowadays.

ggm 4y ago
The camels and the Afghan camel drivers were both imported during a time of explicitly racist immigration policies. Both stayed, and a descendant of a camelteer called Bob Katter is a member of the Australian parliament, and as we say, as mad as a cut snake. You're not wrong about camels being yet another feral pest in Australia. We also host camel auctions selling racing camel breeding stock to the middle east.
- kuhewa 4y ago
  > We also host camel auctions selling racing camel breeding stock to the middle east. Didn't know about this, are there just good genes in the feral population or are desirable ones being purpose bred
  - ggm 4y ago
    Not sure, I think it may be simply a good wild gene pool.

shantnutiwari 4y ago

I really liked this article-- it was featured on Wikipedia front page if I remember correctly. (edit, no it wasnt it was actually this, which talks about the same thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Camel_Corps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Camel_Corps) I found parallels with software engineering, where a "perfect" solution (camel) might be technically possible, but never gets implmented becase of the culture change required; sometimes the existing solution (mules) is good enough. https://new.pythonforengineers.com/blog/what-the-united-states-camel-corps-taught-me-about-software-engineering/ https://new.pythonforengineers.com/blog/what-the-united-stat...

Maursault 4y ago
> where a "perfect" solution (camel) What? Never heard that one. But I have heard a horse built by committee is a camel; if not obvious, this is highly critical of committees. Also, O'Reilly uses the camel to symbolize Perl because... Perl is kind of ugly. This is true. O’Reilly’s symbol for Perl is the camel, the animal on the cover of the venerable Camel book (also known as Programming Perl), a cousin of this Llama (and her sister, the Alpaca). Camels are kind of ugly, too. But they work hard, even in tough conditions. Camels get the job done despite all difficulties even when they look bad and smell worse and sometimes spit at you. Perl is a little like that.[1] Google just informed me that a camel can be symbolic of travel and journeys, wisdom, endurance, survival, service, self-sufficiency, conservation, and, of course, stamina. Camels are also sometimes crude in odor and behavior, but their value far outweighs their lack of etiquette. But I have never heard of referring to a perfect solution as a camel. Did you just invent this, or is it a common symbol in programming for a perfect solution? [1] https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/learning-perl-fourth/0596101058/ch01s02.html https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/learning-perl-fourth/05...

type0 4y ago

One famous camel, likely a myth created during WW2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuznechik_(camel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuznechik_(camel)

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

JKCalhoun 4y ago

The monument to Hi Jolly piqued my interest when traveling through Quartzite, Arizona. I have to thank the "Roadside America" app for pulling up these little road-trip oddities for me. That "Hi Jolly" was the best the American's could do with his actual name, Hadji Ali, was amusing. More intriguing (if fanciful) was the thought that there might still be those camels (or rather their offspring) roaming the deserts of Arizona to this day.... https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/hi-jolly-monument https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/hi-jolly-monument

chrisseaton 4y ago

Not sure this is as unique as the article makes out - camels were a pretty common animal for armies, including into the Second World War.

coldacid 4y ago
Perhaps throughout Eurasia, but apart from this experiment, any camels used by the US Army would have been seconded by allied forces or "requisitioned" from locals.
nicbou 4y ago
Camels fought from Stalingrad to Berlin with the Red Army. And one very famous bear fought in Italy with the Poles.
unmole 4y ago
The Indian Border Security Force uses camels to this day for patrolling along the Thar.

wrp 4y ago

I know of one serious movie about Army camels, Southwest Passage (1954), and two comedies, One Little Indian (1973) and Hawmps! (1976). One of the most interesting bits of folklore is the story of the Red Ghost of Arizona. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Ghost_(folklore) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Ghost_(folklore))

pram 4y ago
A skeleton being strapped to the camel is wild!