What do Vietnam Veterans think of when they hear the distinctive sound of a Huey helicopter?
For a long time when there was the sound of a helicopter overhead I couldn’t resist saying out loud (usually to my wife Sally): “I n c o m i n g……..pop smoke.” I knew it didn’t mean anything to anybody but me; I just liked saying it. I don’t say it aloud anymore, but I still think it. Come to think of it, these are probably the kind of eccentricities that made people think Vietnam vets are a little crazy.Although most people reading this will know, for those that don’t: “Pop smoke” just means throw a smoke grenade to mark the landing zone for an incoming helicopter and indicate the wind direction. The color of the smoke also had significance related to conditions on the ground. It’s the first thing someone would say when we heard a chopper on the way to our location.
What did all the different-coloured smoke mean during the Vietnam War?
I'm watching Apocalypse Now at the moment, and honestly I'm just too curious to keep watching right now. There is brightly coloured smoke everywhere, I don't know where it's coming from...some kind of canister that releases it. The colours are very vivid, like bright red, yellow, green, etc. It's just there in the background, they don't talk about it or anything. What is this stuff and what was the point of it? Is it just for artistic license on Francis Ford Coppola's part?
Calling artillery or air strikes during Vietnam war?
Often a bomb drop or rocket attack from the air were called in based on the friendly's position. He'd ask for fire 50 meters to his East, for instance. The air crew would ask him to pop a smoke and would confirm smoke with the color. Artillery used coordinates and they would fire practice rounds to make sure they were hitting where they were supposed to. There were plenty of hills and mountains near the DMZ. They had names like The Rockpile, The Ridge, Hill of Angels, all air crew knew every one of them by sight. We used them to navigate. Often we navigated by checkpoints.
What do the colors of flares mean?
There's no doctrinal meaning to flares or star clusters, and for a very good reason. If it was in regulations that a green flare meant "attack" then all our potential enemies would know that when a green flare goes up, it meant an imminent attack. Instead, the meaning of various signaling devices like flares, star clusters, and colored smoke grenades are determined on a mission by mission basis. For example, a battalion is charged with attacking a small town. Charlie Company is held in reserve, with orders to move either to block a highway bridge if a red star cluster is fired, or move in to support the main attack if a green one is fired. The next mission, the meaning of the flares would be different.
What do the gang colors red and blue mean?
The Crips are a primarily, but not exclusively, African American gang founded in Los Angeles, California in 1971 mainly by 15-year-old Raymond Washington and Stanley Williams. What was once a single alliance between two autonomous gangs is now a loosely connected network of individual sets, often engaged in open warfare with one another. The Crips are one of the largest and most violent associations of street gangs in the United States, with an estimated 30,000 to 35,000 members. The gang is known to be involved in murders, robberies, and drug dealing, among many other criminal pursuits. The gang is known for its gang members' use of the color blue in their clothing. However, this practice has waned due to police crackdowns on gang members The Bloods gang was formed initially to compete against the influence of the Crips in Los Angeles. The origin of the Bloods and their rivalry with the Crips dates to the 1970s, where the Pirus street gang, originally a set, or faction, of the Crips,broke off during an internal gang war, and allied with other smaller gangs to found the gang that would eventually become known as the Bloods. The Pirus are therefore considered to be the original founders of the Bloods. During the rise of crack cocaine, the gang's focus shifted to drug production. Bloods sets operate independently of each other, and are currently located in almost all States. Blood sets on the East Coast are often seen as affiliated with the United Blood Nation, a gang which originated in Rikers Island.