Courting A Mistress
Applying Agency to Uncertain Circumstances
“There is no doubt that whatever the skill or experience of a bomber crew,” bombaimer Tom Wingham later reflected, “at the end of the day Lady Luck had the last say” (MacKenzie 2015, 388).
Lady Luck
Across generations, situations of life and death are filled with apprehension. When combined with imminent danger such as the case of warfare, circumstances of chance tend to develop a superstitious quality. The notion of luck becomes a way for people to tackle the unpredictability of life and death. Pilots during World War II faced insurmountable odds of carrying out the planned number of flights required of them, with 20 percent considered a high rate of survival (MacKenzie 2015, 383). Luck became the only reasoning that came to most who claimed neither religion nor apathy because, “Those who possessed it tended to survive; those who did not tended to perish” (MacKenzie 2015, 388). Similar beliefs occurred during the wars of Korea and Vietnam. Pilots of the F-105 in Operation Rolling Thunder flew with success rates at, “best only six in ten and at worst could drop to one in four” (MacKenzie 2017, 782). In the face of such odds, people looked for ways to boost their chances. Thus, lady luck became the goddess of the skies.
Philip Gray, a pilot, expressed his feelings toward the matter:
"It could be reasoned that we owed our survival to skill, thorough training, experience, or perhaps knowing when to duck. That would be a load of waffle. We knew very well that the credit lay with a friend who had hung in there with us right down the line. She was a beautiful lady called Luck! True, we never actually set eyes on this most constant of our companions, but every time we left the deck she must have been riding in our pockets. How else could we have got away with it all?"(MacKenzie 2015, 388).
Pilots are not the only military folk groups to develop a belief in luck. In the modern wars of Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers also developed superstitious beliefs. Despite the advanced technology used by US military forces today, war remains a circumstance of chance. Weeks of planning, careful risk assessment, and years of training can be undone by a single improvised explosive device (IED) on a road. In these instances, soldiers look for ways to control the uncontrollable. “By putting something on, by carrying a certain image, or by playing a certain song before heading outside the wire, he can create at least the illusion of control, a hedge against the danger” (Burke 2012, 33). It is under this context of unpredictable dangers that superstitions within the military emerge.
Gaining Her Favor
Superstitions emerge throughout the military in many different ways. The emergence of these beliefs come as the interactions between new and old group members interact within changing contexts and members share new ideas and new beliefs with one another (Sims and Stephens 2011c). For some it often involves their first deployment mission. If the flight or patrol was successful, then people will find either a behavior they did prior to the mission or an object they carried with them during it, must have boosted their luck (MacKenzie 2015, 393-394). Rituals can develop based on the order in which a person got dressed that day, and then the order is repeated for every consecutive mission. A song played before leaving may be replayed each consecutive time thereafter. One example is a ritual developed by pilots during Vietnam. A particular crew had a mascot dog named Roscoe that was present at all the briefings given prior to the mission. At one point, it was put together that the dog’s behavior was different on days where the mission was successful versus days when it failed. It then became a point to watch the dog’s behavior during the briefing to determine if the mission would succeed or not. One veteran remarked that, “if he’d [Roscoe] gone to the back of the room, nobody would have flown” (MacKenzie 2017, 790).
Another example of ritual behavior that emerged among pilots began when a pilot relieved himself on the wheel of the plane before takeoff. When the mission was successful, it became believed that urinating on the wheel must have been what led to the success. From there on out, it became a ritual to relieve oneself on the wheel before each mission. As pilot Peter Russel explained, “To pee was vitally important, to do so on the wheel was for luck” (MacKenzie 2015, 395). Other ritual behaviors that emerged during the Vietnam and Korean wars included only exiting from the door one had entered, wearing the same underwear for every mission, or refusing to utter particular phrases such as “good luck” (Wallrich 1960). These behaviors relay a belief that by applying agency in the form of a ritual, an individual is be able to control things that are uncontrollable.
The most common type of superstition revolves around material objects that service members carry or ware on their person. These can take the form of coins, necklaces, heart shaped rocks, pictures of loved ones, letters, cards, stuffed animals, intimate apparel, and religious memorabilia (MacKenzie 2015 & 2017; Burke 2012; Wallrich 1960). Similar to the way ritual behaviors emerge, talismans and amulets, or more aptly “lucky charms”, provide soldiers with a tangible item that they can use to channel the fear and angst about the unpredictable nature of warfare (MacKenzie 2017).
One female veteran explains the process and her thinking about her superstitious behavior while deployed in Iraq:
"I became very superstitious about the items that I wore. I had a system every morning in which I put various items in certain pockets of my ACU [Army combat uniform]. These items included an angel figure in the lower left pocket and a particular coin (with a religious saying) in my upper-right pocket. Other items, such as my knife and my ID, had to go into particular pockets as well. It was very OCD, which is not like me. I knew that it made no rational sense, but my thought was this was the way I had done things so far, and it had kept me from harm—and I didn’t want to jinx myself by messing
up the routine" (Burke 2012, 27).
While many superstitions that emerge from military members act as a way to bolster their relationship with lady luck, some behaviors, phrases, or material objects fall into the realm of taboo. Superstitions arose surrounding certain tail numbers on airplanes during World War II, such as the familiar unlucky number 13 (MacKenzie 2017, 790). Marine Snipers in Iraq prevent others from looking through the scopes of their rifle, whereas, the eating of desserts—especially Charms candy in MREs—is said to bring the eater bad luck (Philips 2003). While many of these superstitions make no logical sense, they become a necessary part of military members lives that are reinforced with every success and failure.
Rituals and superstitions are not unique to the military. Across many occupations and many cultures, rituals develop as way to, “make intangible values, beliefs, and attitudes—which are frequently hidden—concrete and visible” (Sims and Stephens 2011b, 100). Even groups who are considered the most logical thinkers of our society—scientists—participate in ritual and superstitious behaviors. Similar to military members, researchers often devise ways to boost the likelihood of success. They routinely call off plans, carry lucky totems around with them, and listen to specific music while running experiments (Powel 2017). In each case, both scientists and service members, are attempting to fix fate. As behavioral scientist Vyse explains, “Once the person has done everything they can think of that rationally can help the outcome, then they are looking for something extra” (Powell 2017, 261).
Keeping Her Happy
For military members these beliefs become reinforced every time a mission is successful, or when a ritual is forgotten or altered “resulting” in a failure. One example lies in a particular superstition that developed among Thud pilots in Vietnam. These fighter pilots grew handlebar mustaches believing that the hair on their upper lips made them “bullet-proof” (MacKenzie 2017, 787). When new pilots showed up, they were told by other members that they needed to grow a mustache in order to survive. While a mustache would have no logical reason to keep a person from being shot down, the belief was reinforced when those who shaved it off faced trouble. One pilot, John Casper, recalls shaving his off and “was promptly shot down”, remarking that after that, “Any doubts that anyone in the squadron might have had regarding the effectiveness of mustaches was firmly dispelled” (MacKenzie 2017, 788).
Another example includes a taboo of apricots around heavy armored vehicles. After a soldier drank fruit punch laced with apricot juice, the vehicle he was assigned to command showed up barely functioning, prompting his new belief about apricots, “Never again” (Philips 2003). A personal story comes from my husband, who holds a belief in the power of talismans created in the areas where he worked while deployed. He explained to me how they had set up certain toys, figurines, and sculptures around the work area. He claimed that the equipment only worked as long as the talismans were in their correct place. To bolster that belief, he went on to tell me about a time they were ordered to remove the trinkets. He said that once they were removed, everything stopped working! The person in charge let them put everything back to appease their beliefs and behold, everything worked again (Personal Interview 2018)! While he admits there is no logical explanation for this occurrence, the belief continues on and is passed to new members as they report for duty.
Belief is an almost universal element that exists within folk groups around the world. These beliefs, “develop through complex, dynamic interactions of history, geography, gender, politics, ethnicity, and basically all the features and experiences that surround and are contained within the groups we belong to” (Sims and Stephens 2011, 62). Superstitions are simply another way for groups to communicate with one another. Hence, with each positive and negative result stemming from ritual and superstitious behavior, their value and importance becomes reinforced as it is shared and used between members. In this way, superstitions and ritual behaviors act as a process to tighten the bonds between military members.
For more examples of military superstitions, check out the links below:
1. Dartmouth College did a wonderful job collecting first-hand accounts of various superstitions.
http://sites.dartmouth.edu/folklorearchive/veterans-military-folklore/
2. An article at Military.com, shows examples of common Navy superstitious tattoos.