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Death Cards (all eras)


USMarineCorps
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USMarineCorps

Hi all,

 

Inspired by an earlier post on the forum, I decided to create a topic on death cards.

Although there is a great online reference on this topic (http://www.psywarrior.com/DeathCardsAce.html), I would love to see some of the forum members' examples.

I only have one, which was used by US military and DoD CNTT (Counter Narcotics Training Team) members.

 

I found an interesting story on the website mentioned earlier:

"A variation of the card was initially done yearly, so there are smaller batches floating out there from the earlier years. The first cards were also personalized, given to each guy on the team with their "call sign" on the card as well as the corresponding year that they had been with the team in Afghanistan. The cards were pretty basic the first couple years, done on a color printer and then laminated.

 

As the group got a bit larger it was quite a bit of work to handcraft one for everyone so I came up with an idea to get some printed on actual playing cards. (It is surprisingly difficult to find laminate in Afghanistan.) The original idea was that if you found yourself in a bad situation you could leave your "personalized" card behind - our own style blood chit variation. Lady Death really stood out and was the kind of thing that might get some notice. If a card was found after a battle you would know you needed to rally the force. 

 

The cards took on a life of their own after several years and became more of the team's personalized challenge coins. Our team did not receive awards or recognition so the card was more a gift from one operator to another. It became a symbol of the brotherhood of the professional warfighter. 

 

A picture of Lady Death was always the defining feature of the card. Not all had the ace of spades, one year had the queen of hearts and another year it had the number that corresponded with the amount of guys. Every year around the same time we would make another card for the guys that had made it another year. I did a bit of research on Lady Death as I was not really sure we could use the artwork for the cards. Lady Death had become our unofficial symbol and I really wanted to do it right. So I decided to try and get in contact with Brian Pulido (The creator of Lady Death) and ask if he would be willing to do the artwork for us for a death card. Brian got back in touch the next day and said he loved the idea and would do it for us free of charge. My artistic abilities are non-existent so we gathered some ideas and passed it back to a buddy of a buddy to do a sketch for us. Brain passed the initial sketch on to Scott and he really made it what it was. (It is a bit cut off in the card but there is a skull in the smoke coming out of the M-16).

 

The process took quite a bit of work from start to finish, so the "year" was changed to initiation date of the program 2004 as an homage to the "plank owners" that had started the tradition with the "UTC" as a reference in this case "Until Complete" written as “UTC” to indicate military time, indicating that the time was universal...that the mission and unit continued on. Everyone had their own piece in the development of the team.

 

Scott put together something for us that is still talked about in combat circles. I was proud of the idea of making the card but it was his artwork that really made that card. The colors glow, it is really well done. Of course, I should mention that the Afghans found the exposed cleavage of Lady Death rather offensive. 

 

The death card was never sanctioned and was done for a small group of guys. The card really ignited the passion of the group and stories do pop up now and again about that card. In the end, the situation got rather politically correct over here in Afghanistan...there was worry it was going to cause some hassle for the unit, so it sort of died off."

 

My example is signed by the artist (Scott Lewis), and came with a matching patch.

 

I would love to see your examples (of any era)!

 

Fred

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