Vietnam Graffitti - Ace of Spades

[thefight]

Recently bought this helmet, it has a 74 dated cover and has a rank pin on the rear of the helmet. It has a large Ace of Spades drawn in on both sides rather heavily. It is also named on the long part of the chinstrap. Opinions/comments welcome!

[SteveR]

Nice helmet friend.

[SteveR]

Posted twice. Ooops.

[MrMosel]

Pretty Awesome. It certainly gives the helmet character with the artwork.

[GIZMO8Z]

Not sure if the spade is a unit marking... but I do remember reading somewhere that it's a universal symbol for death.

[thefight]

Thanks for the comments guys and Giz I checked it out a little bit more and it looks like the Vietnam soldiers would use the Ace of Spade card as a psychological weapon against the VC, they would place the Ace of Spade card into dead soldiers mouth and would also litter the ground with them as a symbol of death. Apparently it did not phase the VC much but it acted as a morale booster for the US soldiers, they would even keep a Ace card tucked into their helmet camo band for good luck. It looks like this soldier may have taken it a step further and drawn the Ace of Spade on both sides of his helmet.

[kingtiger]

That is true. We used them and when we did it scared the VC a lot. The NVA were a lot tougher though, plus payback made us feel much better so both results occured. I have some still if you would like me to post one.

Mark

[thefight]

Thanks for the post Mark, and please, post away!

[aj4010]

The liner is dated 1974. Isn't that a little late for American ground troops in Vietnam? I have checked, but the complete withdrawal date of combat troops is confusing.

Best Regards,

Andy

[kingtiger]

I will focus a little better but I wanted to respond as soon as I could. This is a PRC25 radio used in the Viet Nam era, a VC flag from a captured bunker hole and the Viet Nam death cards. The NVA insignia came from the losers on that day.

Mark