| Summary: | (8:19) Mr. Brown talks about the use of the ace of spades playing cards and visiting the company that supplied the decks of cards to him during the Vietnam War.Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive
Interview with Charles Brown
June 27, 2011
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Clint Alley and Rhonda Haygood
Clip 6
Charles Brown: This congressman, of course, it got back because I'd used his name in writing to the president of the card company and back to the advertising agency. I'd used the congressman‟s name so they contacted him. He contacted me. He sent me a Congressional Record, I believe it was in June of ‟66, but where he presented to Congress again his idea of psychological warfare and how it was being used and it was received a lot different by Congress after that. But, ah, we, we had a lot of fun with it. I, I started to say recently but it was about two years ago, I was contacted by Vietnam Magazine wanting the details of the story. And, ah, somebody had written them about publishing the story and I guess over the years I've been given credit for it although there were four of us that started it, like I said earlier the other three were transferred out and I continued it and for the most part I was the spokesman for the group. I don't know how I got that honor but when a request would come in it would always come to me and they'd just let me deal with it. But that, I guess that's my fifteen minutes of fame.
Clint Alley: Do you know, how, how did the enemy react to it? Did you ever hear any stories? Were they really superstitious about it?
CB: Now it‟s funny because I was asked that quite often. I would have freelance photographers, magazine writers would come to Vietnam and go with my platoon in the field wanting action photos, wanting to see how we used the ace. I don't know. And, and this article that I wrote in Vietnam Magazine, I made that clear. As what effect it had on them, I don't know. Never heard it mentioned. But it helped our morale. Now it was, I, I really think it was good for the men, because it gave them something to rally around. Today, earlier I mentioned the reunion that we go to, well everyone that's at the reunion from Charlie Company we have t-shirts with the ace of spades on it; we have Polo shirts with the ace of spades. One of the guys will have twenty made up, bring them to the reunion and pass them out. And I've got I guess three or four different shirts with the ace of spades embroidered on it. And, ah, over the years several units have taken credit for it. Oh, "We used that in—‟, you know, "We started that in 1969‟, "We started that in 1968‟. No, you got to go back further than that. And, matter of fact, after that article came out in the Vietnam Magazine the next issue, there was a little I guess a letter to the editor that he disputed the claim that we started using it first, but he said, “But I can't prove it.” Well I've got total documentation you know of when we started it. And if anyone would come up with something earlier in print I would be happy to retract my story. But, ah, it's been interesting some of the comments over the years. In 2004, I was contacted by the Playing Card Company, I guess public relations director and just wanted to know could I come up, come to Cincinnati and visit with them. We worked out a time where we, we could go up and tour the plant, see how they—and, and I guess what got it all started, it was the Iraqi War had just started, well it started before 2004, but they were printing cards. They couldn't get on the psychological part of printing the aces for Iraq, so they took the fifty-two most wanted Iraqi militants and Saddam Hussein was on the ace of spades and they printed their picture on the fifty-two cards and they shipped them free of charge to the military units in Iraq. I didn't know about that until we got to Cincinnati and they were showing me some and they gave me two or three decks. Since then any Wal-Mart, K-mart, any place like that that sells playing cards, they have got numerous decks for the military. Of course they'll sell them to the public but they made them for the military. They even made some cards they were showing me while we were in Cincinnati, ah, they glow in the dark so you can play cards at night without having to use lights. And they, they asked me could I speak to the employees. And they set a time thirty minutes before shift change so the evening shift could come in thirty minutes early and I‟d talk to them. Then the next thirty minutes was when the day shift went off duty any of them and it was strictly volunteer on their part. But we, we had quite a few people showed up. And one guy — I carried a deck, I think I had two decks left over from Vietnam that I either sent Nancy or I kept, but the original decks and I carried one of them to Cincinnati to show them. And of course the box was sealed just like they are when you buy a deck of cards today. And the seal was not broken on it. And a guy spoke up and he said, “Could I have that deck for a few minutes?” “Yeah.” Well, he left. I thought, “Oh, my goodness. I‟ve lost my deck of cards.” But in a few minutes he come back with it and he went to the assembly line and ran it through the machine that seals the box in cellophane to keep moisture out of it. So he, he sealed the deck for me.
CA: Wow.
Rhonda Haygood: Wow.
CA: That's great.
CB: And he said he was working the day the thousand aces were pulled out, and he said, “I packaged the crate—”
CA: Wow.
CB: “—to send to them.”
RH: How amazing.
CB: Um.
CA: That is amazing.
CB: But, I, I can't help but think back to a lot of things in Vietnam anytime I see a deck of cards. It's just an instant reminder of years gone by.
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