Why Did US Soldiers Carry an Ace of Spades?

Why did US Soldiers Carry around the Ace of Spades?

Well the practice began during the Vietnam War as US Soldiers believed the Viet Cong feared the ace of spades, associating it with death and ill fortune.

So they started to leave the card on Viet cong bodies to frighten and demoralise the enemy. This practice caught on leading to soldiers carrying the card around with them often stored in their helmet band.

But this created a problem, the soldiers now didn’t have a full deck to play poker with. So a member of charlie company, 2nd battalion, 35th regiment wrote to the US playing Card Company asking for 1000 ace of spades cards not really expecting to get a reply.

But the President of the company, Mr. Allison F Stanley was all too eager to help, having sympathy for the soldiers as his own son died in WW2. So he immediately sent boxes and boxes of ace of spades playing cards to Vietnam with “Bicycle Secret Weapon” written on the side of the crates.

The press got hold of the story, resulting in the playing card company receiving thousands of requests to make a deck of cards that only contained 52 aces. So the company started selling them and many military families started sending the special decks to vietnam

However, as it turns out the Viet Cong weren’t frightened of the card but that didn’t stop US Soldiers air dropping it from planes and scattering it on Viet Cong trails and bodies.

I guess in a way the Viet Cong couldn’t help but associate the card with death

[gavinli]

Crates full of “Bicycle Secret Weapon” reminds me of the guy who didn’t understand that “Tootsie Rolls” was code for mortar rounds, and so he ordered literal crates of candy to the front lines.

[bsnxenogear]

"Brilliant plan general, however the Vietcong don't associate the Ace of Spades with death."
"Not yet son. Not yet. "

[RakanrAbualbasal]

Vietnam soldier: why is there a card on the dead man body?
"Meanwhile"
American soldier: they going to be scared

[frederictang]

If there's a ww3 i will definitely strap Uno reverse card on my helmet

[Urbicide]

US Playing Card also did a complete set of playing cards for the US military in 2003. These were called the Iraqi Most Wanted, with Sadam Husayn being on the Ace of Spades.

[Piotr_Tokarz]

"Its the ace of spades, the ace of spades!"

[LilDoofy]

“Why are the Americans giving cards? The deck is not even complete, it is only aces of spades!”
-some Vietnamese soldier probably.

[BeansBem]

They're confused. We play these type of cards too since the French invaded us.

[seawaterthing]

"You fear it, don't you?"

"No, we don't."

"WOULD YOU LIKE TO?"

[GregoryTaylor-wj]

Sooo The ace of spades was pretty much a simple for "F your dead homies?" Wow 😮 now that's some history 😅

[markusdupree]

They are probably so confused you know, they probably don’t even think of the meaning instead think “why are they littering so much” or “did they load the plane with the paper instead of bombs ?”

[DayNapling]

According to a former Viet cong soldier, this practice just straight up confused them. Nobody had any idea why the Americans were seemingly obsessed with the ace of spades.

[Avriel_Mimiga]

imagine being one of the VietCong soldiers and just seeing a plane fly by ad it drops dozens of playing cards

[GuremaManaba]

And spade is more like an arrowhead, then a bullet...

[itspice]

America, multiple times: We have devised a new way to intimidate the enemy
Vietnam, multiple times: what goofy shit are they up to now

[space_soldierman]

"son died in ww2" proceeds to show a colorized video of ww1

[SouthpawArsenal]

“THE ACE OF SPADES. THE ACE OF SPADES.”

[GreatSharks-oL]

The clip of when his son died in WW2. Was a WW1 clip

[mikesperko]

really smart putting a white card in your helmet makes a nice bright colored target to aim from snipers im surprised the co for the unit/platoon allowed that shit

[Based_Face]

It was a part of the 'Operation Wandering Souls' program, American soldiers would play the voices of disembodied Vietnamese voices through loud speakers in an attempt to frighten Vietcong soldiers, they'd also place ace of spade cards on all of their victims.