For Plan 9
 

i cant really blame this soldier/marine for the inscription on his helmet. being in the military myself, i understand that after training for the possibility/eventuality of war, you get creative with jokes and stuff just to pass the time.

the writing on his helmet is the same kind of inside joke as if some office-jockey framed and hung a TPS report from office space on his wall.

Hah, good catch. Those silly Marines are always violating uniform standards.

OFF TOPIC:
how do you change that message under your avatar from "upright" to something else?

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pu...t_logo_889.jpg

Reminds me of the classic "Born to kill" helmet from Full Metal Jacket.

what was the writing on the other side of his helmet?

Yeah, we had a few guys that put pieces of tape on their ACHs and write funny phrases on them:

"ARM THE HOMELESS," "GO JOE," etc.

You aren't actually allowed to write on your helmet cover. It is against uniform standards.

You post responsibly enough to earn that right.

On topic - seems like this joke's about as old as helmets. My guess is that there was a centurion with the same sense of humor and it was old then. But since it was in Latin, that made it smarter.

On a side note: Is that a fucking bear in the background?

Yeah... uh... livestock?

...

Actually, one of the funnier helmet tags I saw was like, "Exitus acta probat."

If by "fucking bear" you mean a large hairy homosexual, my guess is yes. It is a picture of a Marine, after all.

the end justifies the means?

Yeah. Which had many deep layers of meaning.

Vidi, Vici, Veni.