# Were cigarettes (+lighters?) issued to WWII G.I.s? Vietnam? Iraq, Aphgan? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 7, 2011, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-cigarettes-lighters-issued-to-wwii-g-i-s-vietnam-iraq-aphgan/595450 "2011-09-07T01:01:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-cigarettes-lighters-issued-to-wwii-g-i-s-vietnam-iraq-aphgan/595450/21 "2011-09-08T11:48:59Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > They do however _glow_ at night and in infrared. And once you get into cities, you are fighting at close range again. Well, yes, I was giving my brother smokers the benefit of the doubt and assuming they’re not dim enough to smoke openly at night without hiding under a tarp or something. If they do, they’re not very kind to the other residents of their foxhole :). IR, though ? _people_ glow at night on thermals, cig or no cig. That’s sort of the whole idea 😛 ---
**Author:** ![JerseyMarine2092](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8491ac/32.png) [@JerseyMarine2092](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerseyMarine2092)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-cigarettes-lighters-issued-to-wwii-g-i-s-vietnam-iraq-aphgan/595450/22 "2011-09-08T12:24:16Z")
I’ve been deployed with the Marines for Iraq, and I’m currently in Afghanistan with the Army National Guard. In both cases cigarettes are readily available in the PX, and not terribly expensive either. In Iraq you could buy off of local nationals also, but here it’s discouraged because of recently tainted batches. While tobacco use is higher than back on the civilian side, most of the guys use dip. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-cigarettes-lighters-issued-to-wwii-g-i-s-vietnam-iraq-aphgan/595450/23 "2011-09-08T13:42:24Z")
In Afghanistan and Iraq, I have been on FOBs that had cigarettes and Skoal for sale. ---
**Author:** ![T.Slothrop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3e96dc/32.png) [@T.Slothrop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T.Slothrop)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-cigarettes-lighters-issued-to-wwii-g-i-s-vietnam-iraq-aphgan/595450/24 "2011-09-09T06:31:27Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I can personally verify that cigarettes (a pack of four) were included in the C-Rat box, along with matches, during Vietnam. In fact, you would still find them after VN, because there were still a lot of C-rats in circulation which were issued on field exercises (war games). Non-smokers would usually trade them for canned fruit for for some meal that was better than “ham & motherfuckers”. I bought tax-free cigs at the PX in Vietnam for $.15 per pack. In addition to the cigarettes and matches that Chefguy remembers in the c-rat box in Vietnam, in the infantry they also gave us SP packs (Supplementary Pack Packs ?) which had stuff like tooth paste in addition to cigarettes. If you didn’t smoke, your smoking friends would convince you to tell higher that you wanted Chesterfields of Luckies or Kools in your portion of the SP pack because you would get more of them than the folks who wanted the popular brands and those unpopular smokes could be traded to the South Vietnamese Army guys for their rations of dry noodles. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-cigarettes-lighters-issued-to-wwii-g-i-s-vietnam-iraq-aphgan/595450/25 "2011-09-10T01:36:08Z")
Thanks for the wonderful cites/sites, and personal recollections. More questions: I’ve seen pictures where the field soldier is carrying a pack (a full[?] one or a four-fer pack [?]) in a band around his helmet. Done often? Helmet had to be retrofit? Even possible today in Iraq and Afghan? (A museum in a WWII pacific island claimed GIs carried cigs and other personal stuff _under_ their helmets. Lost cite.) Along those lines, where _does_ a modern soldier keep his cigs, then? I mean, how many pockets and kits can he carry with him directly into battle? “Smoke 'em if you got 'em.” And, seriously, I think of the Marlboro Marine often. That picture is the real reason for this thread: [http://www.google.com/imgres?q=Marlboro+marine&um=1&hl=en&safe=off&client=safari&sa=N&tbo=d&tbm=isch&tbnid=eghi3XsHyJuqSM:&imgrefurl=http://laurenformica.blogspot.com/2010\_04\_01\_archive.html&docid=J\_40-v7qvDBQ3M&w=495&h=332&ei=pbtqTrzmN6b30gGF6cn1BQ&zoom=1&biw=1024&bih=690](http://www.google.com/imgres?q=Marlboro+marine&um=1&hl=en&safe=off&client=safari&sa=N&tbo=d&tbm=isch&tbnid=eghi3XsHyJuqSM:&imgrefurl=http://laurenformica.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html&docid=J_40-v7qvDBQ3M&w=495&h=332&ei=pbtqTrzmN6b30gGF6cn1BQ&zoom=1&biw=1024&bih=690) ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-cigarettes-lighters-issued-to-wwii-g-i-s-vietnam-iraq-aphgan/595450/26 "2011-09-10T01:40:23Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Cigs were tax free at the Px too. Dad always got his there. Don’t know if the new PC climate changed that or not. They still have them and they still are tax free, but they have to be priced within 10% of the local price. ---
**Author:** ![SanDiegoTim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@SanDiegoTim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanDiegoTim)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-cigarettes-lighters-issued-to-wwii-g-i-s-vietnam-iraq-aphgan/595450/27 "2011-09-10T02:02:00Z")
In mid '69 we were issued K-Rations. Very similat to C=Rations. Two were included. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-cigarettes-lighters-issued-to-wwii-g-i-s-vietnam-iraq-aphgan/595450/28 "2011-09-10T03:28:34Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Thanks for the wonderful cites/sites, and personal recollections. > More questions: > I’ve seen pictures where the field soldier is carrying a pack (a full[?] one or a four-fer pack [?]) in a band around his helmet. Done often? Helmet had to be retrofit? Even possible today in Iraq and Afghan? (A museum in a WWII pacific island claimed GIs carried cigs and other personal stuff _under_ their helmets. Lost cite.) > Along those lines, where _does_ a modern soldier keep his cigs, then? I mean, how many pockets and kits can he carry with him directly into battle? You can get elastic bands that fit over the helmet like a hatband. I understand that their original design was to help keep environment-appropriate camo covers in place, but nowadays I think folks mostly get them so they can have a name or nickname embroidered on them. As far as where soldiers keep their smokes, our uniforms have lots of pockets, but the Army guys tend to keep them in their sleeve pockets, that I’ve noticed. Each sleeve has a pocket up near the shoulder (they velcro their unit patches on the outsides of these pockets). If I didn’t know better, I’d swear they designed the uniform with that in mind. I’ve also seen guys keep cell phones there. The Air Force uniforms, however, are mandated by law to not be practical at all, and instead the equivalent pockets are way down in the legs, just above the boots, forcing you to kneel or bend down for anything you decide to keep down there. Also, the body armor worn in the field can have various pouches, containers, etc. clipped to it, so I would assume troops could keep their smokes around in any of those places. And yes, they sell tobacco at the BXes on base, though I’m not sure if our ration cards track those out here in Korea (they DO track our purchases of alcohol, food, and high-value electronics to prevent black marketing. If an airman has purchased five or six HDTVs, that’ll make event he most dimwitted cop go “Hmm…”) ---
**Author:** ![C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C.Montgomery_Burns)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-cigarettes-lighters-issued-to-wwii-g-i-s-vietnam-iraq-aphgan/595450/29 "2011-09-10T12:58:20Z")
Most pictures of WWII C-ration contents include a pack of Lucky Strikes or Camels. Cigarette companies considered providing cigarettes to the troops a morale boosting gesture, doing something positive for the war effort. I doubt there was any sinister intent to insure there were addicted soldiers after the war. Most people at the time smoked cigarettes, with no social stigma attached in most places. Cigarettes were just another consumable commodity, like candy, soda pop, and gum. People may have known smoking wasn’t good for them, but probably saw it in the same way that candy wasn’t good for them, as a minor vice. Tobacco companies were just doing their “patriotic duty”, as they saw it. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-cigarettes-lighters-issued-to-wwii-g-i-s-vietnam-iraq-aphgan/595450/30 "2011-09-10T13:16:25Z")
> [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](#): > > Most pictures of WWII C-ration contents include a pack of Lucky Strikes or Camels. Cigarette companies considered providing cigarettes to the troops a morale boosting gesture, doing something positive for the war effort. I doubt there was any sinister intent to insure there were addicted soldiers after the war. Most people at the time smoked cigarettes, with no social stigma attached in most places. Cigarettes were just another consumable commodity, like candy, soda pop, and gum. People may have known smoking wasn’t good for them, but probably saw it in the same way that candy wasn’t good for them, as a minor vice. Tobacco companies were just doing their “patriotic duty”, as they saw it. I’d agree. Studies showing statistical correlations between smoking and early death, cancer, etc, started turning up in the 1930s. Really solid evidence for a causal connection emerged in the 1940s and 1950s. Even post WWII, the military was probably unwilling to discontinue a traditional part of their field rations, until it became really, really obvious that they probably shouldn’t issue cigarettes. Hence, they kept doing it until 1972. ---
**Author:** ![NNN99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ac91a4/32.png) [@NNN99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NNN99)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-cigarettes-lighters-issued-to-wwii-g-i-s-vietnam-iraq-aphgan/595450/31 "2011-09-10T15:19:22Z")
The issue of cigarettes in the c ration pack was discontinued after Viet Nam when we changed to MRE’s. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-cigarettes-lighters-issued-to-wwii-g-i-s-vietnam-iraq-aphgan/595450/32 "2011-09-10T22:11:06Z")
> [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](#): > > Most pictures of WWII C-ration contents include a pack of Lucky Strikes or Camels. Cigarette companies considered providing cigarettes to the troops a morale boosting gesture, doing something positive for the war effort. I doubt there was any sinister intent to insure there were addicted soldiers after the war. … > Tobacco companies were just doing their “patriotic duty”, as they saw it. Your description sounds a little too sugary, I think, although the general drive of patriotic duty is of course true. Clearly the cig companies were not manufacturing millions of cigs for free for the armed forces. It must have been a hugely lucrative, basically sole-source market, I’d guess without Army test competitions before contract signing. It would be interesting to find out how Luckies and Camels hit the jackpot. (They both have great logos, of course. 😉 ) ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-cigarettes-lighters-issued-to-wwii-g-i-s-vietnam-iraq-aphgan/595450/33 "2011-09-10T23:42:31Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > I’d agree. Studies showing statistical correlations between smoking and early death, cancer, etc, started turning up in the 1930s. Really solid evidence for a causal connection emerged in the 1940s and 1950s. Even post WWII, the military was probably unwilling to discontinue a traditional part of their field rations, until it became really, really obvious that they probably shouldn’t issue cigarettes. Hence, they kept doing it until 1972. I just read “The Big Sleep” by Raymond Chandler (1939), and he mentions poisoning his lungs with cigarettes. Even King James had a semi-famous screed against the health problems from smoking, not 40 years after Raleigh brought tobacco back from the new world. I’ve smoked off and on in my life, and it doesn’t take long to realize it’s really bad for you. I agree that the tobacco companies probably weren’t being malicious back in the 40s, but people were definitely fooling themselves. ---
**Author:** ![C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C.Montgomery_Burns)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-cigarettes-lighters-issued-to-wwii-g-i-s-vietnam-iraq-aphgan/595450/34 "2011-09-11T03:52:46Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > It would be interesting to find out how Luckies and Camels hit the jackpot. (They both have great logos, of course. 😉 ) They were the most popular brands of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-cigarettes-lighters-issued-to-wwii-g-i-s-vietnam-iraq-aphgan/595450/35 "2011-09-11T21:49:34Z")
If you’re in an environment that is wet, with streams and rivers to cross, keeping smokes dry is going to be difficult and your head is going to be the bit that goes under water last. Attaching them to the helmet makes sense under those circumstances. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-cigarettes-lighters-issued-to-wwii-g-i-s-vietnam-iraq-aphgan/595450/36 "2011-09-11T21:57:35Z")
> [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](#): > > They were the most popular brands of the time. And for a while afterwards. I am sure that the marketing people at those companies realized that a lot of the soldiers would stick with those particular brands after the war. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-cigarettes-lighters-issued-to-wwii-g-i-s-vietnam-iraq-aphgan/595450/37 "2011-09-12T03:40:47Z")
> [@JerseyMarine2092](#): > > … In Iraq you could buy [cigs] off of local nationals also, but here it’s discouraged because of recently tainted … Tainted? 😕 Poisoned? Moldy? ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-cigarettes-lighters-issued-to-wwii-g-i-s-vietnam-iraq-aphgan/595450/38 "2011-09-12T04:11:02Z")
[http://www.skylighters.org/special/cigcamps/](http://www.skylighters.org/special/cigcamps/) WWII: Just found this. Interesting stuff. In 1941, U. S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had made tobacco a protected crop. Cigarettes, though, were included in GI C-rations, and tobacco companies sent millions of free “butts” to GIs, mostly the popular brands; the people on the home front had to make do with off-brands like Rameses or Pacayunes. Tobacco consumption was so fierce during the war that a shortage developed. By the end of the war, cigarette sales were at an all-time high. In 1942, the American Tobacco Co. (ATC) responded to the dye shortage by changing the Lucky Strike package from green to white. Its slogan: “Lucky Strike Green Has Gone to War.” The ad campaign coincided with the U.S. invasion of North Africa. Sales increased by 38%. A year later, Lucky Strike’s green/gold pack turned all-white, with a red bull’s eye. The war effort needed titanium, contained in Lucky’s green ink, and bronze, contained in the gold. (Click on the pack of Luckies below for more information!) ---
**Author:** ![Oliveritaly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oliveritaly/32/15233_2.png) [@Oliveritaly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oliveritaly)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-cigarettes-lighters-issued-to-wwii-g-i-s-vietnam-iraq-aphgan/595450/39 "2011-09-15T11:15:16Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Thanks for the wonderful cites/sites, and personal recollections. > More questions: > I’ve seen pictures where the field soldier is carrying a pack (a full[?] one or a four-fer pack [?]) in a band around his helmet. Done often? Helmet had to be retrofit? Even possible today in Iraq and Afghan? (A museum in a WWII pacific island claimed GIs carried cigs and other personal stuff _under_ their helmets. Lost cite.) > Along those lines, where _does_ a modern soldier keep his cigs, then? I mean, how many pockets and kits can he carry with him directly into battle? > > “Smoke 'em if you got 'em.” > > And, seriously, I think of the Marlboro Marine often. That picture is the real reason for this thread: > [http://www.google.com/imgres?q=Marlboro+marine&um=1&hl=en&safe=off&client=safari&sa=N&tbo=d&tbm=isch&tbnid=eghi3XsHyJuqSM:&imgrefurl=http://laurenformica.blogspot.com/2010\_04\_01\_archive.html&docid=J\_40-v7qvDBQ3M&w=495&h=332&ei=pbtqTrzmN6b30gGF6cn1BQ&zoom=1&biw=1024&bih=690](http://www.google.com/imgres?q=Marlboro+marine&um=1&hl=en&safe=off&client=safari&sa=N&tbo=d&tbm=isch&tbnid=eghi3XsHyJuqSM:&imgrefurl=http://laurenformica.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html&docid=J_40-v7qvDBQ3M&w=495&h=332&ei=pbtqTrzmN6b30gGF6cn1BQ&zoom=1&biw=1024&bih=690) In most Army units, in my experience at least, putting your pack of cigarettes in the band around your helmet would be an open invitation to nearly any non-commissioned officer to correct you. I would have been considered a uniform violation. I was a senior NCO and I know I would have told whoever was doing that to remove them, but I can’t honestly say I ever saw it. For what it’s worth I joined in 1989 so I cannot speak to those who served in years past. I understand that uniform regulation was less stringently enforced in years past so … I typically, in the field at least, kept them in the cargo pockets on the sides the legs. As mentioned a lot of the body armor comes with a LARGE variety of containers for everything from ammunition to sunglasses to you name it. I’m sure a lot of soldiers put their cigarettes in those containers. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-cigarettes-lighters-issued-to-wwii-g-i-s-vietnam-iraq-aphgan/595450/40 "2011-09-15T16:55:49Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > [http://www.skylighters.org/special/cigcamps/](http://www.skylighters.org/special/cigcamps/) > WWII: > Just found this. Interesting stuff. > > In 1941, U. S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had made tobacco a protected crop. Cigarettes, though, were included in GI C-rations, and tobacco companies sent millions of free “butts” to GIs, mostly the popular brands; the people on the home front had to make do with off-brands like Rameses or Pacayunes. Tobacco consumption was so fierce during the war that a shortage developed. By the end of the war, cigarette sales were at an all-time high… [http://www.chickenhead.com/truth/julep2\_40.html](http://www.chickenhead.com/truth/julep2_40.html) (classic ad, SFW) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-cigarettes-lighters-issued-to-wwii-g-i-s-vietnam-iraq-aphgan/595450.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-cigarettes-lighters-issued-to-wwii-g-i-s-vietnam-iraq-aphgan/595450.md?page=3)