Tag Archives: jolly roger

Break out the Roger!

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40 years ago today: The Churchill-class nuclear-powered fleet submarine HMS/m Conqueror (S-48) returns to her base at Faslane, Scotland, flying the Jolly Roger after sinking the Argentine cruiser ARA Belgrano (ex-USS Phoenix, CL-46) during the Falklands War some eight weeks prior. Pictured on 3 July 1982, it was the first time a Royal Navy submarine flew a ‘Roger since World War II.

While “Conks” was decommissioned in 1990 after just 19 years of service– in the best tradition of the Admiralty’s bean counters– and sent for recycling, the Roger is on display at the Royal Navy Museum.

Jolly Rogers and tigerstripes

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AP Wire Photo: 4 August 1964

Dig the M1 carbines and tiger stripe camo. Hallmarks of the mid-1960s Mike Force units.

Official caption:

Skull and Crossbones on the Cambodian border. Two leaders of a special South Vietnamese government platoon, identified by the Skull and Crossbones kerchief they wear, lead [a] group along a canal that marks the Cambodian border in the Plain of Reeds west of Saigon. The special outfit undertakes terrorist actions against the Viet Cong villages.

Both the Vietnamese Rangers (Biệt Động Quân) and Special Forces (Lực Lượng Đặc Biệt) used tigerstripe as did the “Sea Tigers” of Republic of Vietnam Marine Corps (TQLC) and Green Beret-organized CIDG units.

Of the latter, Mike (Mobile Strike) Force units, recruited from Hmong, Nung, and Montagnard peoples, often used Jolly Rogers in their locally-made insignia and “M.F.” patches.