You may have watched the weed shotgunning scene in Oliver Stone’s Platoon movie. Believe it or not, it was a common practice during the War in Vietnam in the 1970s. Just take a look at these historical ‘shotgunning weed’ pictures!
Oldpics has already published some noteworthy pictures of the US Navy sailors during their free time in Hawaii in 1945. Let’s take a look at the marine’s routine during the Vietnam War.
How the weed shotgunning was invented
In 1970, the US army in Vietnam switched from offensive operations to training South Vietnamese troops and holding garrison defenses. Trying to deal with boredom and low morale, many began to smoke marijuana. Note that in Vietnam, you can find cannabis as easy as high schoolers do. It grows literally everywhere, and its quality is just excellent. At the same time, unlike high schoolers, US soldiers didn’t have any tobacco paper or bong, so here why that used what they had: shotguns. Here’s how the weed shotgunning was invented!
On November 13, 1970, a documentary team captured American soldiers in a small jungle clearing in War Zone D, 50 miles northeast of Saigon. The team leader Vito is a 20-year-old recruit from Philadelphia. He demonstrated how his squad used a 12-gauge ‘Ralph’ (nickname) shotgun for the cameras.
Vito discharged the barrel, inserted a lighted pipe with marijuana into it, and invited his comrades to inhale the smoke that came from the long barrel. Yes, that’s how shotgunning weed looks like!
Read more: The war in Vietnam in pictures by Horst Faas
In this photo, soldiers in fire support base Aries, a small clearing in the jungles of War Zone D, 50 miles from Saigon, smoke marijuana using a shotgun they nicknamed “Ralph,” Nov. 13, 1970.
All’s fair in a war… when you stay high.
Vito, a recruit from Philadelphia
