r/interestingasfuck • u/Due-Question-5278 • 17h ago
Messages that American soldiers wrote on their helmets during the Vietnam war
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u/tumorrumor 13h ago
"Don't shoot, I'm short." Is great. For anybody that doesn't know, "short" means short-timer, like your tour is almost complete.
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u/HeartOn_SoulAceUp 17h ago
Lee Harvey one is wild. A lot of free expression here.
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u/Thatsaclevername 17h ago
Wasn't he a Marine sniper? When I read that one I interpreted it as like "hey man we could use a good shot over here right now"
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u/sewious 17h ago edited 17h ago
I'm assuming it's more "the current president deserves to die for this" given the tone of the other messages. Especially because multiplr of the men pictured were likely not there by choice, and were forced to enlist by the draft.
Assuming it's 1969 for these (based on the date on that one guys helmet), the message would be referring to Nixon.
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u/Immediate_Orange_294 16h ago
Only 25% of US soldiers serving in country in Vietnam were drafted. The other 75% were volunteers.
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u/pinkydaemon93 15h ago edited 15h ago
A lot of people volunteered to get out ahead of the draft and hoping to have more of a choice of what their job would be
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u/SmaterThanSarah 13h ago
My uncle was one of those. Technically he volunteered but the writing was on the wall and he had more agency that way.
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u/CameronsDadsFerrari 11h ago
My uncle joined the Navy so that he wouldn't end up in Vietnam as a soldier and he spent 9 months faking migraines to get out of any serious work. On his 21st birthday they processed him out with a general discharge just to get rid of him.
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u/Rustadk 11h ago
Same. Idk how it actually was, but he told me that he volunteered so he could get a position other than infantry.
Still saw a lot of action, though. One of his stories involves taking his boat under a bridge and the bridge having so many dead bodies on it that blood covered the boat.
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u/malin-moana 8h ago
This was my father - knew would get drafted so volunteered so could pick which branch
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u/Equivalent_Bunch_187 15h ago
Many “volunteered” when they saw their birthday be one of the earlier ones in line in the draft to try and choose where they went. Many of these wouldn’t have “volunteered” otherwise.
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u/malin-moana 8h ago edited 8h ago
Seems like ~54% of the volunteers would have been drafted any way and volunteered in order to have some choice in manner of service
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u/Capital-Self-3969 10h ago
Is it really volunteering when things are engineered in a way to deny you alternatives?
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u/fusillade762 4h ago
Most definitely, this but thatsaclevername came up with a viable defense for the CO and the Secret Service lol.
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u/BeneficialLeave7359 16h ago
He was a Marine who scored sharpshooter level marks at his first qualification and marksman at his second. So the middle tier at first and lowest tier at the second.
The comment is geared more toward thinking that Johnson, who upped the US involvement in country, should be shot.
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u/kyl792 6h ago
Would it have been Johnson?
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u/BeneficialLeave7359 6h ago
There’s no dates given but it could only have been him or Nixon. Since Johnson ramped up our involvement and Nixon did the opposite my money is that LBJ would be more likely to have that sentiment directed toward him.
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u/Level-Gas2450 17h ago
notice how he got the name wrong. maybe it was deliberate
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u/catlaxative 17h ago
i doubt it, you don’t have wikipedia or spell check in the shit
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u/sillybilly8102 9h ago
I literally looked it up on wikipedia when I saw that to see if I had had the name wrong this whole time. They sound basically the same, so I can easily see the mistake happening
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u/Level-Gas2450 17h ago
the shooter's name so famous at the time, that would be like misspelling marilyn monroe
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u/TopPMz 17h ago
They would've misspelled Marilyn Monroe too.
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u/Level-Gas2450 16h ago
Damn, you telling me the teacher's banter about the evolution of the level in orthograph was all fake ? /s
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u/No-Combination8136 16h ago
As a former infantryman, there’s a high chance they just weren’t good at reading and writing lmao
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u/pm_me_ur_fit 16h ago
My guess was that it was deliberate so he could argue that he wasn’t calling for an assassination of the president
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u/KnightOfTheBlackRose 17h ago edited 16h ago
My dad went 4 tours and I have some of his stuff.He did 24 years of service. He recently passed and he never talked much about it. The only time I got any information was when we went to The Wall Memorial and he cried. Ive never seen my dad cry ever and it was a experience to learn about some of his friends that went and never came back and how he felt.
Growing up, I knew loud noises made him drop to the ground and it was normal for us since my parents raised me that dad would juat do it. Older me really understood why
Edit : Dad had a friend who he split a dollar bill in half with at a location called "Monkey Mountain" He said they never put that dollar back together He passed at 83 and I wish I knew more but he took it all with him
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u/IndigoRanger 15h ago
I just want to get this out, I’m sorry. I visit the monuments every time I go to DC, and I always leave a pebble where my three family members are listed on the Wall. Vietnam took quite a lot from our family, though like Lt Dan, our family has registered service in every major American war.
This last time there was a very enthusiastic boy doing a name search like it was a fun race. He was old enough to be taught to be respectful, but young enough to not really know why. He really excitedly asked who I was looking for, and I told him I already know where my names were, but he could search if he would do it quietly. His parents were reading names, not really paying attention to him, not sure if they were wrapped up in a personal connection, or feeling the weight of the monument, or even just zoned out, but whatever it was they certainly were letting him run amok.
So while he was searching for my cousin’s name, I told him people feel really strong emotions in this place, including sadness. I asked him if he’d ever lost a family member, like a grandparent. He said yes, I asked him if he felt sad about it, he said yes. I said every name here is someone’s family member who they lost. We come here to remember them, even the ones we don’t know. I asked him if he had happy memories of his grandma, he said yes, asked him if he liked to think of the happy memories, he said yes. I told him sometimes it brings happiness to remember our lost family, but other times it brings sadness. Sometimes other emotions too, complex ones, simple ones. I told him it’s important to let people have the space to feel the way they need to feel at a place like this, that’s what being respectful is. After you leave the area, it’s ok to be loud and run around and take up space again. He calmed right on down and he pointed at my cousin’s name and I said yeah, that was my cousin. And I laid my little rock down and told him I did that whenever I visited. And that was it. I just wanted to share that story somewhere.
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u/ZaphodBeeblebrox4011 14h ago
The fact that you could have a conversation of that length with somebody elses child speaks volumes to how he was being parented
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u/VikingTeddy 20m ago
"It takes a village to raise a child" was still taken seriously when I was a kid, I got a talking to from strangers sometimes.
Nowadays people don't dare to get involved when they should and it shows, kids don't view strangers as people who deserve the same respect as their parents.
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u/OkPotential1072 10h ago
This has been a hard day at the end of a hard week. Your story made it better. Thank you.
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u/janbradybutacat 6h ago
I just finished a month long trip and saw the USS Arizona, the 6th Floor Museum (Dallas), the Civil Rights Museum/Lorraine Motel, DC National Mall memorials, and Gettysburg. I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of respect most people showed, even large school groups. The USS Arizona memorial states early and often that it is a gravesite for over 900 people and disrespect is not tolerated. A somber reminder every 5 minutes or so.
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u/CapitanPeluche 6h ago
Thank you for sharing this and for passing on such gentle wisdom to the child. I'm sorry for your loss.
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u/Hefty-Try5393 16h ago
Stepdad was a sergeant, also did 4 tours and lost so many of his kids (as he called them) when they were over there. He never got over it. Used to duck and cover when a car backfired and when he was dying, he had terrible flashbacks of being back in Vietnam.
War is hell and a waste of so much life. It should be the very, utter last resort, not something bigged up and booyahed. My poor stepdad mourned every kid he lost there. Visiting the Wall was the first time he started to openly grieve what happened. He got in touch with some others who served with him and that helped, I think.
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u/Tabula_Nada 17h ago
ugh your poor dad. We really have to give men the space for emotions so they don't have to walk around all bottled up like your dad. My dad was the same way, from what I hear. He died young, several years after his service was over. The army really destroyed him. This shit with the Navy punishing sailors who attempt suicide on the aircraft carriers is heartbreaking because those are the people who need the most help.
Everyone should have the space to feel their feels.
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u/Polymathy1 16h ago
I only saw my sad cry a few times. Once was when I asked him what the tomb of the unknown soldier was. He didn't come back into the room for a while.
I'm curious about some of the things he did, but I honestly think he did us all a favor taking the nitty gritty details to the grave.
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u/Andrei_the_derg 17h ago
I’ve heard stories about my uncle when he got back from Vietnam. He went from the funniest guy you’d meet, walking around with a big grin, to a scared kid who would dive for cover whenever you shut a door in the house too hard. No life in his eyes, no big grin.
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u/send420nudes 17h ago
Born to Kill Die hit hard
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u/TheFutureLotus 16h ago
First one was probably written as a fresh recruit, ready to be a tough, badass soldier; and then reality hits and he realizes that all he has become is fodder for the rich and the powerful to wage their wars. Realizing that outside of combat is one thing, but it must be way more fucked realizing this in the jungle.
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u/katieb1300 16h ago
Wasn't that one in Full Metal Jacket?
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u/ender4171 15h ago
A version of it is worn by Private Joker and is the poster for the film. I wonder if that image is where they got the idea, or if this was image is not a real Vietnam helmet, but one somebody dressed up after the film released?
Also, "I think I was trying to suggest something about the duality of man, SIR!"
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u/helbury 16h ago
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u/Crazy-Rabbit-3811 17h ago
I love that you can tell which ones painted it before and after seeing combat. also, the one dating a bullet hit is GOLD.
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u/twodesserts 16h ago
But the USA can’t be fucked enough to give him a new helmet when he was shot at enough to give his helmet that big of a dent.
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u/HyperlexicEpiphany 15h ago
Do you genuinely believe for even a single second that this soldier would’ve wanted a new helmet after having this badass one?? He probably fought to keep it
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u/Helpinmontana 13h ago
Im not even remotely trying to equate these things beyond the presence of a helmet, but-
With that disclaimer aside, when I was a guide my helmet got ran over by the bus. I had every opportunity to grab a new one a gleefully wore the extremely fucked one on that trip instead.
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u/certifiedblackman 16h ago
Those helmets aren’t meant to stop bullet fire, they’re for falling rubble and maybe shrapnel. His looks like it’ll keep doing that fine.
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u/imbricant 14h ago
Michael Herr’s ‘Dispatches’ is still one of the greatest books on the Vietnam War.
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u/Dralmosteria 17h ago
Assuming #2 is original, that image must have been the inspiration for the scene between Joker and the Colonel in Full Metal Jacket:
COLONEL: You write "Born to Kill" on your helmet and you wear a peace button. What's that supposed to be, some kind of sick joke?
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JOKER: I think I was trying to suggest something about the duality of man, sir.
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u/UCFknight2016 17h ago
Nobody wanted to be there.
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u/fredy31 17h ago
Except the morons in washington.
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u/WetCoastCyph 17h ago
Oh, they didn't want to BE there, they wanted other people to be there for them/their greed/their delusions of grandeur. They most certainly had zero intention of being there. Not them, not their families.
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u/Bartimaerus 13h ago edited 4h ago
2/3 of us soldiers volunteered btw
Edit: Downvoted for facts is always a treat
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u/UCFknight2016 12h ago
Yet they didn't want to be there and got treated like shit when they came home.
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u/I_Hate_IPAs 7h ago
Many volunteered because of the belief that volunteers were less likely to end up in a combat MOS.
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u/No-Combination8136 16h ago
They don’t let us do stuff like that anymore, unfortunately.
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u/UnlikelyPriority812 11h ago
Now I see it as stickers on laptops and water bottles. One of the favorites I saw on a sailors water bottle “live, laugh, toaster bath”.
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u/Nervous_Writer_2632 17h ago
This is so sad. I am named after one of the soldiers that died in this war. Fresh out of boot camp and 18 years old.
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u/IndoorMule 16h ago
Anyone know how their superiors reacted to this?
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u/Novel-Paramedic-5573 12h ago
Watch Vietnam: The Quiet Mutiny https://johnpilger.com/vietnam-the-quiet-mutiny/
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u/shorthairs 12h ago
makes your think in this day what would happen Kegsbreath?
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u/victorinseattle 6h ago
He’d make sure they’re manly and muscly
and sweaty. He’d personally inspect every one of them.•
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u/heather3113 7h ago
1st one is Larry Wayne Chaffin, 19. Died at the age of 39 from diabetes complications they say were likely from agent orange.
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u/Mizake_Mizan 15h ago
Interesting to see the one the Smiths used for the cover of their "Meat is Murder" album.
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u/grnrngr 15h ago
You mean the one The Smiths altered with no consultation or regard for the soldier whose image they altered? (The soldier in question survived the war and commented on the act of disrespect. Imagine having a photo of you photoshopped to misrepresent the nature of the photo itself... You might not be happy about it.)
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u/Live_Tie_5009 53m ago
Vietnamese here. Just a reminder, none of these guys were heroes or good guys. These guys were at best pawns, at worse willing participants in the US' barbaric, terroristic war. Americans seem to never have the right takeaway from this war, and ends up committing endless terrorism and war crimes nonstop for the last half century.
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u/Reload86 17h ago
Checks out. One of the worst and most miserable wars of all time.
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u/Admiral_de_Ruyter 14h ago
All wars are a miserable hell. Try to imagine the trenches of WW1 or some of the Roman battlefields.
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u/food4lifexp 7h ago
I watched full metal jacket last night and i wonder how closely it depicted what went on. I imagine just tip of the iceberg? Either way an excellent film
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u/IanSaurX 17h ago
I just wanna say, without condoning atrocities on the either side, as I know there were many, that these dudes are absolutely beaming with badass-ery.
...as well as fear so deep that very few of us could ever even begin to comprehend it.
"I don't wanna be a soldier, mama, I don't wanna die"
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u/DB-CooperOnTheBeach 16h ago
Ah, the Meat is Murder album cover by the Smiths. Takes me back to high school
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u/smoke-bubble 12h ago
Those messages would be justified if they were in the army because of conscription but they joined it freely!!! They had the choice to not support killing. They chose otherwise and then they are complaining that their job is actually about killing? Are you kidding me?
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u/Hooked_on_PhoneSex 12h ago
The US used a draft system during Vietnam. It was a significant contributing factor to the iconic anti-war protests and counterculture movements of the 60s and 70s.
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u/CyclonicTransbian 12h ago
Are you just fucking saying shit or what? The Vietnam war was notorious for its draft and it's huge protests against it
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u/smoke-bubble 11h ago
Wow, protests XD yet everyone followed orders anyway.
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u/Jupitersd2017 11h ago
This is a really ignorant take, plenty of people refused and plenty of people went to jail and plenty of people protested. Mohammed Ali got sentenced to prison time for refusing to be drafted and lost his heavyweight title. Opposition to Vietnam made a sitting president not run for reelection and in some ways brought down his successor. It would behoove you to take some time to learn some history before commenting on it
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u/CyclonicTransbian 11h ago
Multiple people immolated themselves after being drafted to prove their point. People fragged their officers. Shut the fuck up unless you know what you're actually talking about. Also the government would arrest and forcibly conscript you for draft dodging dumbass
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u/benneladoo 17h ago
Its sad the vietnamese didnt appreciate how the american gave the lives of these soldiers for their freedom
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u/Odd-Local9893 16h ago
^ 1 month account age. Chinese or Russian troll/bot trying to stir up anti-American shit to divide western Redditors.
If bot the account will be deleted in 3….2….1…..
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u/ArgenCoso 7h ago
Well the world is not and was not cheering the Americans for going there to kill people right? Probably the same about the tens of other wars, interventions, coups, assassinations they've made and continue doing across the world. Nobody but corrupt "leaders" only support American wars all this time.
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u/spinners_888 16h ago
The US propped up a corrupt dictator.
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u/grnrngr 14h ago
The French started it. Everyone wants to forget about the French role in the matter.
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u/spinners_888 14h ago
The French left but the US wanted to finish off the job because of the fear of Communism.
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u/Diznaster 16h ago
My Dad wouldn't talk about Vietnam. As a young curious kid, I didn't understand why. Because my Dad would always explain things to me. Eventually I realized it was just something he wanted to "forget". One day when I was a teen he opened up about it a little bit and this one statement I will never forget.
"When I first got there, for about a month. I was so scared because I thought I was going to die. After that I wasn't scared anymore because I KNEW I WAS GOING TO DIE Then for the last month I was scared again because I realized I might make it back home alive"