American Urban Legends Warfare Quiz

Answer: He writes a message under the stamp and asks her to save it for his collection.

This legend dates back to the American Civil War, and made appearances in both world wars as well as Vietnam. A POW writes to his mother saying he is fine and will be released when the war is over. He asks his mother to save the stamp for his collection. When she steams off the stamp, she finds his real message: 'They have cut out my tongue' (or, 'they are starving us,' or 'they have cut off my hands,' etc). This story is sometimes called the 'Little Alf' story, as the soldier sometimes tells his mother to save the stamp for Little Alf, who doesn't exist.

This horrifying story never actually happened. The Red Cross delivers POW mail for free, and a prisoner wouldn't stamp their own mail at any rate.

The families of POWs go through hell waiting and not knowing. In the absence of news, people tend to assume the worst.

Answer: Having tried to escape dressed as a woman.

Jefferson Davis was captured on May 10, 1865, near Irwinville, Georgia. When he received word that the Yanks were approaching, he grabbed a coat and took off. The coat turned out to be his wife's. This was quickly exaggerated by the Northern press, which showed cartoons of Davis attempting to flee while dressed in hoop skirts and petticoats.

Answer: A musket ball passed through his groin and struck a field nurse in the abdomen. Nine months later they became parents.

This is an old classic. A soldier is shot through the groin. The bullet then strikes the nurse in the abdomen, lodging in her uterus. Nine months later the girl gives birth to a son, despite her protestations of innocence. Only when a doctor discovers a battered miniball under the baby's skin, do we find out who the father is. The doctor contacts the soldier and informs him of his unexpected responsibility. They eventually marry and have two more kids (in the normal way).

This never happened, but, oh, don't you wish it did! Some claim the legend predates the Civil War and is actually an old Indian tale about a wayward arrow.

Answer: Bart Simpson

Apparently she didn't do her homework. Sadly, this never actually happened.

Answer: Cutting the hands off Belgian children

Officials of the Catholic Society reported the mutilation of the Belgian children (sometimes adding that the soldiers ate the severed hands). After the war, no one was able to locate even one mutilated child. I often wonder if this wartime propoganda caused the West to disbelieve stories of the Holocaust during the next war.

Answer: Mattel

Soldiers were so disgusted with the lightweight, plastic, and poorly performing weapon, that they found it easy to believe that it was produced by a toy company. To complicate matters, Mattel did produce a very realistic looking toy M-16 at the time. The real M-16 was produced by Colt Firearms.

Answer: They can be kicked between the teeth of a corpse, so they will stay with the body.

According to the rumor, if a soldier died and his body could not be immediately transported, his comrades were supposed to stick the tag between his teeth and kick his jaw shut. This was to ensure the tags would not be separated from the body. The real explanation is much more mundane: the notch comes from the embossing machine. Tags today have no notch.

Answer: Bert (Sesame Street)

In a decidedly odd photo, we see a group of Bangladeshi protesters. One of them is waving a poster made up of a collage of Osama images. Sure enough, an angry-looking Bert is standing next to one image of Osama. It seems that the photo was from the now defunct 'Bert is Evil' site, and someone copied it onto the poster without looking carefully. Here's a link to the photo:

http://www.snopes.com/rumors/bert.htm

No Muppets have been indicted for the September, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Answer: The Beaver (Leave it to Beaver)

When someone named 'Jerry Mathers' was killed in Vietnam, he was mistaken for the actor with the same name. The wire services printed that the star of 'Leave it to Beaver' had been killed in action. When they realized their mistake they blamed each other. As of 2005, the real Jerry Mathers is still alive.

Other 'Leave it to Beaver' rumors include Lumpy marrying Raquel Welch, Eddie becoming and pornographic movie star, and June having to have her pearls surgically removed.

Answer: White soldiers who received blood from black donors would father black babies.

This is, of course, purest superstition, but it did not prevent the wasting of thousands of units of blood that had not been sorted by race. Dr. Charles Drew, the African American bloodbank pioneer, spoke out against this silly practice.

Thanks for playing. For more information about military rumors, check out http://www.snopes.com/military/military.asp

I also used the books 'Rumor' and 'More Rumor' by Hal Morgan and Carrie Tucker.