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

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[browningautorifle]

It never rains right Harlan? The collection shall be re-built!

[Harlan (Deceased)]

Yes Sir!

I had at least twice this many helmets before I had to sell them a couple of years ago when I hit a rough spot in the road. I collected only different types of WWII helmets which were very expensive, even back several years ago. They're out of sight now, and I only have one WWII era helmet but collecting the other time periods which are much more affordable is great fun. I had to buy several books and learn a lot of new information to have a clue what I was doing with 'pre' and post WWII, but doing the research is a great deal of the fun to me anyway.

If anyone is interested I can do some detail photos and characteristics of some of the other specific time period of U.S. helmets (?)

In the photo above on the far lower right there's one displayed helmet that's sitting higher than the others. It's this one that I put together for a Christmas gift for my son. This is called an Advanced Combat Helmet, or 'ACH' - It's the current type of helmet being used today by the U.S. Army. The first kevlar helmet design was called the PASGT and it had sides that came down farther than the newest one. They found the lower sides obstructed vision even though it had more protection, so they opted for better vision and raised the sides a little.

The first design of kevlar helmet looked a lot like German helmets from WWII, or the 'Stahlhelm' ('Steel Helmet' in German)
The young GI's nicknamed them 'The Fritz' or instead of calling it a 'K-pot' as the first slang term, they called them the 'Kraut-pot' (No offense meant, Gunner)

This is the ACH I made up for my son and it's now in his room - It has a mount for night vision goggles on it.




This is the earlier design PASGT -




As a comparison, this is the WWII German Stahlhelm I had, but had to sell

[JimF4M1s (Deceased)]

Harlan, I couldn't find enough shelf space for a cool collection like that. What's next Air Force liners?

You know we didn't always wear our helmets. Looking back that was pretty stupid.

[Harlan (Deceased)]

That's an AWESOME photo, Jim!

You know we didn't always wear our helmets. Looking back that was pretty stupid.

Sometimes I think about the things I did when I was a that age and younger, and wonder how I ever made it this old without all the safety laws and government regulations that are in place now.

In the 60's when I was a kid during the summer I used to leave the house on my Schwinn Stingray in the morning wearing nothing but cut-off shorts, pulling 'wheelies' and jumping over everything imaginable (no helmet or pads, and NO kid had them back then) and ride all over town dodging cars along the way. We played in fields and swam in brooks and ponds on the outskirts of town miles from home, killed water-moccasins with rocks and sticks, played 'War' and had dirt clod fights with none of the protective gear an average paintballer uses today, got into real fist fights with the bigger bullies in the area, and then rode home on our bikes after dark with no light or even reflectors.

If a kid did any of that today the parents would find themselves in jail!

[gsimmons]

You just described my childhood!

[JimF4M1s (Deceased)]

Harlan,

As gsimmons says, you just described my childhood too. That was how it was in the 50's.

Your quote "Sometimes I think about the things I did when I was a that age and younger, and wonder how I ever made it this old without all the safety laws and government regulations that are in place now. If a kid did any of that today the parents would find themselves in jail!."

Now that I don't agree with. I think the government regulations are a bit out of control. But we can't go into politics here.

I am feeling old!

[Harlan (Deceased)]

You misunderstood, Jim. That's what I meant too.
(But that's all I can say without danger of a demerit from Bill)

The subject is cool helmets. Anybody else have a good one?

[conec]

The subject is cool helmets. Anybody else have a good one?

Well, you didn't specify vintage. How about a 1941 South African tin hat, straight out of the Western Desert?

[Harlan (Deceased)]

Awesome! Can you post a photo of the inside? It's always interesting to see how the suspensions are made. Is your helmet the same as a British MK II? I don't know much about them.

Here's a photo I saved of what I 'think' is a British helmet. I used the photo to demonstrate the little tie string that was used on most American helmet nets until 1945, when America made their first American made nets for the M-1 helmet. Many people think the tie string helmet nets were made for American helmets but the British made most of them that America used - they just happened to work on the American M-1 but the tie string was designed to keep the net on the British helmet. They work better in the M-1 helmet if you don't draw the string up tightly once you get them stretched on, and just let the liner hold it in place. They're very tight when on American helmets and at first you need to stretch them to fit.

The nets America made were rectangular and didn't have a string on them.