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Far from doing 20 parachute drops, Rob did little more than act as a companion for Tom Burt, the quartermaster for 2nd SAS. His reputation was concocted when Rob’s owners, who had lent him to the Army Veterinary and Remount Services to help the war effort, wrote asking if they could have their dog back. Burt, who had grown attached to the dog, was upset at the prospect of losing him, so he and Hughes contrived to keep him in the regiment by sending him on a parachute jump. Hughes would then write to the family to say that Rob’s services were indispensable.
“We had a suitable parachute harness and I phoned through to the RAF and made arrangements for Rob to have a short flight,” Hughes wrote in his memoir. “Unfortunately, quite a strong wind blew up during the flight and the RAF decided it would be dangerous to drop Rob on that day.”
Hughes resolved to write the letter regardless, and thought that would be the end of the matter, but Rob’s owners were so proud that they passed the letter on to the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA), which awarded the dog the Dickin Medal for Gallantry — commonly described as the animals’ Victoria Cross.

The parachute was re-invented in 1783 by Sébastien Lenormand in France. Lenormand also coined the name parachute. Two years later, Jean-Pierre Blanchard demonstrated it as a means of safely disembarking from a hot air balloon. While Blanchard's first parachute demonstrations were conducted with a dog as the passenger, he later had the opportunity to try it himself when in 1793 his hot air balloon ruptured and he used a parachute to escape.

Ms Miles [curator of the Nelson museum] said up to 16,000 pigeons were dropped into France by this method, but only just over 1,800 made it back to Britain, as a lot could have perished unfound in their containers. "They were dropped in the hope that people who found them would return them with information. It was a brilliantly simple idea." Many may not have been found, but some could have fallen victim to a counter-attack strategy by the Nazis - a "squadron" of hawks posted at the French coasts to catch any pigeons winging their way across the English Channel.

The BBC also notes that during WWII parachutes were made for pigeons. But if you're imagining pigeons with little harnesses around them, it's not quite like that. The pigeons were first put into containers and then dropped by parachute into France:

Did someone forget that pigeons can fly?

They were used to carry messages out of France. If they weren't in containers they would have immediately flown back to England, kind of negating the whole purpose of getting them over there in the first place.

I say Rob (memory of Rob) should keep the medal. Eventhough he didn't jump because of the bad weather, he still had the balls to get his gear on and get on the plane, and was ready to jump...

That's nothing, I once had a dog who singlehandedly stopped the outbreak of WWIII. All top secret of course, so I can't give you any details.

When my dad was in the Navy, chasing Indonesian infiltrants in the New Guinea jungle as Bren-gunner in a landing crew, they had a dog with them who would always jump out of the landing craft and swim ashore first. Untill one day, the brave animal suddenly disappeareed with a yelp in a big whirlpool. A shark or a croc, they never knew exactly. The brave dog that died in action never got a medal. This is him:

Winona: That's nothing. My dog single handedly stopped WW4! Top secret, under wraps, secret war over a Cheese factory in an undisclosed location. Yep. I can exclusively reveal that in the final minute of the conflict, where Indonesia and India were about to obtain the secret object hidden in the Cheese factory (the object was reportedly made out of cheese) my dog took it.

There. Beat that

I'll see your cheese and raise you Magic Cheese (http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/permalink/magic_cheese/).

Awww c'mon! That's not fair! Nothing beats Magic Cheese! How the hell do I compete with Magic Cheese?

Getting back to the pigeons, I wonder if they really thought that idea all the way through.

Think about it, you're living in a war torn country side, living off short (if any) rations, and suddenly a crate of pigeons land in your field.

Would your first thought be "Oh boy, now I can send secret information to England!" or "Ma, heat the skillet, we eat tonight!"

As this is the "museum" of hoaxes, it would probably be worth pointing out that this came up due to the Imperial War Museum's "Animals at War" exhibition. They had a piece on "Rob" which sparked newspaper reports based on "Who Cares Who Wins". The IWM still have the Rob bit on display AFAIK, as they haven't been shown conclusively that it was a hoax.