U.S. M1 Helmet Collection

[jc5420]

Beautiful collection!

 

[coolhandluke]

The first 2 made me feel right at home. I'll bet your wife just loves you. I'm knowing you have the entire 3rd bedroom full of memorabilia.

Those are two of my favorites as well Ronny. I'm really starting to prefer the salty looking helmets that have seen some use. The fixed bale helmet was pretty much a basket case when I got my hands on it. It looked like it had been pulled out of a barn and was about an inch deep in mud and bird droppings. After a little vacuuming, a bath in Woolite, and a replacement liner chin strap and sweatband she looks respectable again.

The wife is way more patient than she probably should be about my hobbies. She knows that she is the most important priority so it probably makes it a little easier to put up with. I keep everything confined to the office at our house along with my vintage stereo and baseball collection. I feel lucky to have my own room so I try to keep it as presentable as possible. One of these days I'll have to post some photos of the man cave.

Now I wish I had kept the old steel pot I was issued before we went to Kevlar. I did manage to latch on to one of the first issued Kevlars. Who knows, it may be a collectors item someday.

I plan on adding a PASGT (like yours) and an ACH to the collection at some point. I passed on a nice PASGT the other day for $30 and am starting to have some regrets about the decision.

 

[coolhandluke]

I added another M1 to the collection as a pick-up from yesterday's RK show. The shell is a WWII front seam, swivel bale McCord that was updated with T-1 chinstraps for use during Vietnam. The shell has been used as a protest or "hippy helmet" and has a great looking hand painted camo pattern with a peace symbol in white at the front of the helmet. I honestly did not recognize what the peace symbol was until after purchasing the helmet...I just really liked the camo job done with period paint even though it was definitely not done in military service. The J hook was missing so I aged a NOS hook that I had on hand to match the other hardware and installed it on the short chin strap which was an easy fix. I also added a early Vietnam era Westinghouse liner to complete the helmet.

Here are a couple pics...







I also scored a couple PASGT helmets and a couple interesting helmet covers awhile back that I forgot to post about. The PASGT helmets are run of the mill Desert Shield / Desert Storm and OIF/ OEF era helmets so I will only bother with the covers...

First one is a rare 1959 contract Mitchell cover with 506th 101st Airborne markings. The second is a 1962 contract Mitchell cover with red diamond tac markings. Similar red diamond markings have shown up on helmets and covers before, but I don't believe that their meaning has ever been identified with 100% certainty. Both covers came from a grouping of items off of Craigslist that came out of an 101st veterans estate. The 506th cover is now installed on my Vietnam era M1-C Airborne helmet. The other cover is now installed on the rusty helmet with the cut chinstraps that I restored.

 

[ByrdC130]

Nice collection of "steel pots". But seeing all of those pics does make my neck hurt!

 

[SPDguns]

Fascinating collection!

 

[Deer Slayer]

I do not wish to jack your thread. but where may I find an inner helmet liner? My Dad was a WWII veteran and I want to locate the liner and replace the missing leather straps. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[ronny]

PM coolhandluke. He's your most likely person with an answer.

 

[coolhandluke]

I do not wish to jack your thread. but where may I find an inner helmet liner? My Dad was a WWII veteran and I want to locate the liner and replace the missing leather straps. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

If your father's helmet is missing the chinstraps, they will be made of webbing and not leather. The only leather parts on a WWII era U.S. helmet will be the liner chin strap and the liner sweatband.

Shoot me some photos of the helmet via pm and we'll go from there. I can help with identifying the missing parts and provide you with some sources of where to look for period correct replacements. Or...if you prefer, we can discuss what your budget might be and I can locate the parts and restore the helmet for you.

 

[coolhandluke]

Did a little work this morning and completed a 45th ID marked MSA (Mine Safety Appliances) liner that I picked up at the RK Show a few weeks back along with the protest helmet. The liner was rough and dirty and was missing the sweatband, nape strap, crown tie, and chin strap. Unit painted WWII liners and helmets are about as rare as hen's teeth so I didn't pass it up. I cleaned the liner up and pulled the chin strap, nape strap, and sweatband off of the Westinghouse liner in the my front seam swivel bale McCord (with the dented top) and the crown tie out of a beater Seaman Paper Co. liner to complete it. The Westinghouse liner had been pieced together so it didn't bother me to borrow some parts off of it. The condition of the liner better matched the helmet and parts that I borrowed anyway.

Here she is completed...everything matches so well that you'd never know that the helmet, liner, and liner parts were pieced together. I need to do a little research, but I believe the rank insignia should be for a Tech Sergeant.

 

[Deer Slayer]

CHL- Will do