Len Dawson smoking at halftime of SB I.
Posted on 08/11/2019 10:53:24 AM PDT by re_tail20
Mention of the American military-industrial complex conjures up images of massive weapons procurement programs and advanced technologies: supersonic bombers, strategic missiles, armor-plated tanks, nuclear submarines, and complex space systems. However, a key element of the military lifestyle for many years was not a weapon or even a machine, but one of the world’s most highly engineered consumer products: the manufactured cigarette.
U.S. soldiers used to smoke often in historical footage, so why don’t they anymore? Why are U.S. military officers now banned from smoking in uniform on some installations? Looking back at military smoking culture, stark distinctions separate the past and the present: Hardly anyone smokes in public on bases today. There are no cigarette billboards, no smoke breaks on the rifle range, no ash trays in the squadron bar, and no smoke-filled post-mission briefing rooms.
The demise of soldierly smoking during the 20th century is a story of power, politics, culture, and money. The nearly 90-year-long relationship reveals how difficult it can be to extricate the government from corporate collaboration once companies get entrenched in partnerships. And, of course, when an intensely passionate affair turns sour, the fists—and the lobbyists—come out.
But the love between the Army and the cigarette all started rather innocently on the World War I battlefield. After a year of war, the Army decided to give out cigarettes to enlisted men because they wanted to keep them calm during battle and free of boredom. The Army was aided, ironically, by the Y, which also handed out billions more manufactured cigarettes to soldiers. For its part, the Y wanted to keep men from liquor and sex workers. The vice of manufactured cigarette smoking was the happy compromise from which everyone got something.
Soon Y volunteers could be found in every corner of the frontlines providing “loosies”...
(Excerpt) Read more at zocalopublicsquare.org ...
That’s how chewing gum started as well. Chewing gum keeps you awake when tired, so is useful for soldiers in combat who can’t afford to get drowsy.
It permeated movies, TV and offices through the mid-80s. Look at some of the old movies and TV series pre-1986.
In the late 80s/early 90s the anti-smokers got more attention. Companies, for example, started having designated smoking areas. By the mid-90s, smoking was banned inside many office buildings.
Nah. They don’t smoke ‘em anymore for the same
reason civilian society stopped. They’ll kill you.
Remember ‘three on a match’?
Cue Slim Pickens
I know if I was out there during WW2 after a firefight, I’d be smoking my ass off too. After I made sure everything was still screwed on of course.
“That’s for sure. That’s for *dang* sure!”
You don’t smoke when your on duty.
Especially if you’re standing watch.
As recently as the 80’s NFL players would smoke in locker rooms at halftime. As recently as the 90’s NBA players would smoke in the locker room. You will find no more fit people than professional athletes. Smoking has almost zero effect on a young healthy person.
Len Dawson smoking at halftime of SB I.
recently the Navy decommissioned the SSN San Francisco
and held a ceremony on Keyport at the Museum, the uniform was ice cream suits. The officers looked pretty lean. the EM however didn’t look as if they had missed too many meals.
Soccer players are the kings of sport smokers.
Johann Cruyff was a big smoker, wound up killing him.
the uniform was ice cream suits.
If you have just been in a serious fire and did not get dead or wounded, there is nothing like a Camel.
LOVED those little C-Rat cig packs- but not for smoking!
Author’s thesis is not quite true. I’ve never smoked and served 22 years active, including getting those C-Rat packs. Those little cigarette were gold to me - my Marines were willing to swap chow. I might even have gotten clean socks a time or two.
Apply the same thesis to the rise of something increasing but initially prohibited in the military or not promoted by the military-industrial complex and see the thesis holds.
Silliness"
No, it isn't. Coca-Cola's founder, Robert Woodruff, wanted "to see that every man in uniform gets a bottle of Coca-Cola for five cents, wherever he is, and whatever it costs the company."
He might have done this out of patriotism but the end result was that the USA became a nation of Coke drinkers. Because he got them habituated to using his product.
Most American GIs in WWI had never smoked a factory-rolled cigarette before the war. But the cigarette companies saw to it that they were plentiful. And nobody smoked 40 cigs a day before they could buy them machine-rolled.
In the late 19th Century only 1% of cancers found during autopsies were of the lung. By the Roaring 20s (by which time factory-rolled cigs were commonplace) that number was 14%.
In WWII Cigarette manufacturers sent free cigarettes to GIs overseas and ran adverts in the US encouraging civilians to do the same. And the companies who sent the most 'free' cigs to the GIs had the biggest increases in sales after the war. It was great advertising and great ROI.
The world has been smoking tobacco since Sir Walter Raleigh carried it to England but between 1852 and 1952, the per capita occurrence of lung cancer went from 0.3% to 5.66% of the overall population, a 19-fold increase, which brackets the invention of the cigarette rolling machine (ca. 1880) and both World Wars.
[[[If you have just been in a serious fire and did not get dead or wounded, there is nothing like a Camel.]]]
As my WWII vet uncle used to say, “I’d walk a mile for a Camel and two for a hump.”
LOL
RIP Uncle Frank
Dress Whites I believe.
I agree. I believe cigarette use didn’t increase until the introduction of mass-produced factory-made cigarettes. Before then, tobacco use was largely via chewing tobacco and cigars. Men working outdoors could chew and spit. Gentlemen lounging indoors would light a cigar. I think WWI introduced a generation of American men to safety razors, undershirts, and cigarettes. WWII solidified it.
That sounds like an old, traditional name.
But I was in the USN for four years and never
heard dress whites called that. Interesting.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.