I’m republishing an earlier post from 2014. Were you superstitious and believed that good luck charms protected you during the Vietnam War? Here are some observations of mine from that time long ago. Agree or disagree?
How many soldiers going to war believed in the magic of good luck charms and superstitions? Seemed like everybody carried something in Vietnam as a talisman – an object representing protection and survival. We were young and needed something to grasp onto – something to give us hope – something to help keep our fears at bay – something to give us strength – something to help us get back home after our tour of duty.
The most common that I remember seemed to be religious items such as medallions like St. Christopher or a cross hanging from chains around soldiers’ necks, then bibles, rosary beads and scapulars.
I saw many soldiers carrying pictures of their girlfriends and/or wives – infantry soldiers usually kept them inside of helmets or within metal ammo cans stored under rucksacks; slices of home and keepsakes of…
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CherriesWriter - Vietnam War website 
When I entered the Army Warrant Officer flight training program in 1967 my wife gave me a Snoopy Doll with a WWI leather flight helmet and wearing goggles. I carried Snoopy-I in my flight bag through flight school and to Vietnam my first tour in 1968 – 1969, then back home. By 1971 when I got orders for my second tour Snoopy-I was getting a little ragged. So, just before I left for my second tour she gave me Snoopy-II. Snoopy-II accompanied me through my 2nd tour for all of 1972. In 1978 Snoopy-II was retired and Snoopy-III assumed his appropriate place in the helmet bag where he remained until my retirement in 1984. Today Snoopy-III, although worn, tattered and a little worse for the ware occupies a prominent place on the shelf above my desk. I’m approaching my 82nd birthday now and not in the best of health. I’m a realist. I know the inevitable. I instructions to my family is to tuck Snoopy-III under my arm when I make my final flight.
Were those dolls “good luck charms”. No. Am I superstitious? I don’t think so.
So why did I carry those Snoopy dolls with me every time I flew for all those years? Because when I flew with my Snoopy doll in my flight bag, I always had a part of my wife with me. Somehow that was comforting.
Welcome home everyone.
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Don’t forget the grenade ring/pin in the vent holes of the utility cover or worry beads on the name tag.
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Never carried anything
Strangely, I never really thought
I could get hurt (other than the
first few nights on guard duty until dawn at Camp Evans when I’d first arrived months earlier)…
… until that hot LZ on a decoy
mission when I set up a relay
to Camp Eagle on FSBs Airborne
and Eagle’s Nest (or was it Eagle’s Nest
and Berchtesgaden??)
anyway, I was told to be on pad at Eagle
next day and was lifted to LZ Sally…
18 slicks came in for the grunts with 8 Cobras and 4 Loaches and some guys identified me and I was handed an “Eyes Only” folder with directions, given equip, and we were off… I’d thought it was some little jaunt out ‘near’ FSB Veghel as I’d been told but we stayed high and then I saw what looked like Kong’s Island; all
cratered for miles… half the force went south
to where I would call in my Com Check…
guys were yelling at me to hurry up and I could see all the tracers flying at second stop so off we went and I was last slick in… it didn’t stop and the equip and I must’ve tumbled 10’… equip was everywhere… I crawled or ran and got behind the biggest log, did my thing and looked up to see all the Cobras lining up and I was on their net with C&C bird barking orders
and hoping they didn’t take me as NVA as I was 50 m behind grunts but they fired into trees and then I saw 2 guys up there in trees so I did my thing and hoped it saved somebody else…
But that’s when I started ducking during rocket attacks at Eagle and Dong Ha… and asked my brother to send my St Christopher
Idea was supposed to make NVA
think 101st was returning to conduct
major ops in A Shau Valley prior to
Lom Som 719…
They’d already moved north… some A hole said something on an unsecure net about staging area near Route 9… the NVA wasn’t stupid
Anyway
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