Ace of Spades

:For the Motörhead album see Ace of Spades (album)

War

The Ace of Spades has been employed, on numerous occasions, in the theatre of war. In the second World War, the American 101st Airborne Army Division were marked with the symbol painted on their helmets. In this capacity, it was used to represent good luck, due to its fortunate connotations in card playing. All four card suits were used for ease of identification of regiments within the airborne division following the confusion of a large scale combat airborne operation. Battalions within the regiments were denoted with tic marks or dots, marked from top clockwise; Headquarters at the twelve o'clock position, 1st Battalion at the three o'clock, et cetera.

Related Topics:
American - Airborne - Army

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Some twenty years later, the Ace of Spades was again used by American soldiers - this time as a psychological weapon in the Vietnam war. It was erroreously believed that Vietnamese ancient traditions held the symbolism of the spade to mean death and ill-fortune. The soldiers were quick to pick up this misconception, and in a bid to scare away Viet Cong soldiers without firefight, it was common practice to leave an Ace of Spades on the bodies of killed Vietnamese and even to litter the forested grounds and fields with the card. This custom was believed to be so effective, that the Bicycle Playing Cards company was asked to supply crates of that single card in bulk. The crates were often marked with 'Bicycle Secret Weapon.'

Related Topics:
Vietnam war - Bicycle Playing Cards

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More recently, in 2003 a deck of Most-wanted Iraqi playing cards issued to US soldiers during Operation Iraqi Freedom; each card had the picture of a wanted Iraqi official on it. Saddam Hussein got the nickname "Ace of Spades" as his was the face which adorned that card.

Related Topics:
2003 - Most-wanted Iraqi playing cards - Operation Iraqi Freedom - Saddam Hussein

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