In the Vietnam War American troops wore the M1 helmets, the troops called it a “Steel pot”. It felt really uncomfortable when the soldiers put in on their newly shaved head in basic training or boot camp. Soldiers found a way to express themselves by writing slogans and graffiti on their helmets.
These helmets were introduced in 1941, and some GI or Marine scribbled “Kilroy war here” or some other oddball or iron, saying on his helmet. Until the Vietnam War, though. what you most commonly saw on helmets were rank insignia and unit designations. The Vietnam conflict put its own identity stamp on the things that soldiers wrote on their helmets. Initially soldiers wrote their girlfriend’s names, city, state, peace signs and short-timer calendars. As the war prolonged, slogans and other graffiti were changed to hilarious and satirical slogans and many of them were based on the reality.
