That was the original job of the "Helmet hat" with it's chinflaps. The head band was to come out and the head harness loosened to allow correct wear with the steel helmets. I had one for years that came from Ft Wainwright but of course it now has been superseded by civilian life. The Balaclava inside the steel pot was terrible, unless worn without any head harness at all. The helmet with removeable head harness was never made into an M1C version that I saw.
I left Benning in Nov. 83 and they were just beginning to get the Kevlar since the 82nd already had them. I never saw a snap-in suspension system for a M1c liner In fact I never knew they existed until after I retired and started collecting helmets.
The cold weather hat you show was issued but never used for jumping. In the winter that hat replaced the ball cap and it was rolled with rank and insignia on the front and it got the inglorious name "Buffalo Chip". Most of us would go out and buy the 1950s pile caps, they looked sharper.
It will always be Ft Bragg to me, I went to my ROTC advance camp there, gained 20 lbs in six weeks. 145 going in, 165 coming out. Still can't quite figure that out. Ate three meals a day instead of two, I've never been more than an occasional breakfast eater except for those six weeks.
I'd say that you've picked up a bargain and it is what it is, a relic, and with history.
When my Jap helmet arrived from Japan a few years ago it appeared to be untouched since WW2 and therefore I have left it like that. (At the time it made economic sense to buy the helmet from Japan and pay the shipping and taxes etc rather than buying one in the UK but it may be different now.)
My sights are also set on a Japanese helmet, but they are cost prohibitive nowadays.
I've been on many a police call on the DZs of Fort Bragg and was always amazed how much stuff we found. Entrenching tools stick in my mind, folded in the cases. The real amazing part is that more people weren't clobbered and killed by them falling! If it did happen, I never heard about it.
Some years ago, in a now closed surplus store in Lacey, Washington, I found a cardboard shipping box, dated 1984, containing eight M1 helmets (only bought one). These were made by RJ Stampings, a Canadian Company, and are the last manufactured M1s. Next to the shipping crate was a stack of 1984 liners with snap in suspensions (only bought one of these too). They now sit as the last in line of my M1 collection.
I've been on many a police call on the DZs of Fort Bragg and was always amazed how much stuff we found. Entrenching tools stick in my mind, folded in the cases. The real amazing part is that more people weren't clobbered and killed by them falling! If it did happen, I never heard about it.
In 1973 we had a particularly bad CH47 jump in Alaska where half the company lost equipment, M16s, helmets and other gear (including a set of PVSs). We also had a serious mid-air entanglement which was touch-and-go for a while. The Company Commander was so mad at us that he called us together on the drop zone and proceeded to chew our collective 4th points of contact for an hour. He ended his tirade by calling us a "bunch of bums". From that point on, we referred to ourselves as "Charlie AirBUM". I will say, though, we recovered an M16 that was bent like a "Coma", a truly amazing sight to behold (wish I had a picture).
It will always be Ft Bragg to me, I went to my ROTC advance camp there, gained 20 lbs in six weeks. 145 going in, 165 coming out. Still can't quite figure that out. Ate three meals a day instead of two, I've never been more than an occasional breakfast eater except for those six weeks.
I, too, am a light breakfast person, but when I reported to Jump school just before Christmas, we had a Zero month instead of a Zero week because of the holidays. Our mess hall served the best breakfast I"ve ever eaten in a dining facility. I chowed every breakfast for a month until training began. After that breakfast consisted of a glass of chocolate milk. It gave me energy and didn't curdle in stomach during the 3 to 5 mile runs.
RJ Stampings, a Canadian Company, and are the last manufactured M1s.
Those are they...and that retarded chin strap. We'd replace those hand over fist, the stores NCOs had crates of them. Useless crap. The snap in head harness was a wonderful idea, except when you took your filthy head harness out to machine wash and dry like the troops will do, it shrunk and COULD NOT be reinstalled. There were no replacements issued.
Originally Posted by BEAR
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