Early Vietnam M1C Helmet

[Harlan (Deceased)]

I have wanted an early Vietnam helmet for some time to add to my Time-line and growing Vietnam Era Helmet Collection and just acquired an all correct 1963 M1C (Paratroop) helmet. This design was very similar to the helmets used in the Korean War, and they were the same type of helmet used by troopers in the movie: We Were Soldiers

They're hard to come by - specially in near mint condition and all period dated parts. I came across one on ebay with a fairly high Buy It Now price and fell in love with it, but I had spent too much on Christmas to afford it. I made an offer and the seller countered with a better price, but it was still more than I could really afford.

Then my wife walked through the room and saw me on my laptop and asked if I had found something on ebay I wanted for Christmas because she hadn't gotten anything for me. She bought it for me, and got the seller to send it Priority Mail and got it to our house on Christmas eve! (VERY Nice!)






The strap hardware is the early green color, the same as Korean war helmets - It changed to black in the mid sixties.




The paratroop 'A-yolks' were added to standard M-1 'Ground Troop - Type I ' liners after they were produced. Paratroop helmets use the A-yolks to attach a second chin strap under the chin in addition to the shell's normal chinstrap to help secure the helmet when they hit the violent airstream as they leave the plane. This A-yolk is made from the same OD#3 (khaki) material left over from WWII M1C helmet conversions. There's also a small additional strap with a snap on it added to the helmet chin strap that snaps onto a corresponding female snap added to the inside of the shell to help keep the liner and shell together when jumping. You can also see the thin leather strap for the liner that dated back to WWII. It was done away with a couple of years after this.




From this photo you can see the earlier design for the webbing that's the same as used in Korean War helmets with the circular tie string in the middle for adjustment which design dates back to WWII M1 helmets.




After I got it I looked for the liner maker mark, but it was so small I couldn't see it even with a magnifying glass. I rubbed my finger around the dome and felt it so I used a mini-mag light to illuminate the marking and got lucky using macro mode to get a good photo - Firestone is a rarer maker, but this was even rarer. Firestone didn't have enough molds, so they used some molds they borrowed from Westinghouse who made the majority of liners. You can see the remnants of the Westinghouse logo of a 'W' with circle around it behind the newer stylized 'F' symbol for Firestone -




Below is my later Vietnam M1C that I got a couple of months ago from the two 'Jims'
(BAR and Jim4M1) - It was BAR's service helmet and Jim4M1 bought it for my collection a couple of months ago! Jim also sent me an awesome knife he carried in 1968. These are my two most prized pieces of gear now.




In this photo you can see the different design in the suspension, and the different nape strap design to help hold the helmet from slipping forward. You can also see that the hardware on the chinstrap is now painted black. The chinstrap isn't OD#3 as it appears - It started out as OD#7 (Olive Drab) but BAR's helmet saw time in the sun and was actually used for years, which bleached out the strap and cover some.
(It's a little bit 'Salty' like Jim!)




They were using newer, green colored A-yolks by the time this later M1C was made - They still made them by modifying standard ground troop helmets. The extra snap for securing the helmet and liner can be seen here, unsnapped.




Now the main types of Vietnam era helmets are covered - I have an early and late M1C, along with standard infantry Vietnam helmets. I also have a 'Post Vietnam War' M1 helmet in correct Woodland camouflage from the early 80's that was phased out when the first Kevlar helmets were introduced in 1985. It has completely different irremovable liner suspension and completely different chinstraps than all previous M1 helmets

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