Help with M1 helmet

[lanners55]

Gentlemen.

I would very much appreciate your help with dating the various components of this helmet, found during renovation work on a bar in the combat zone in Boston.

The shell is front seam swivel bale. The liner is by Capac with the numbers 5 and 1 under the stamp (date?). Are the liner, cover and the camouflage band much later than the shell?

Best regards,

Simon

[bodes]

The liner is made by Capac and I believe is dated 1951....Both helmet and liner are painted for Vietnam war usage....The camouflage band w/reflective squares is post Vietnam era....I can't make out a DLA number on the cover, but believe it may be post VN as well....Bodes

[lanners55]

The liner is made by Capac and I believe is dated 1951....Both helmet and liner are painted for Vietnam war usage....The camouflage band w/reflective squares is post Vietnam era....I can't make out a DLA number on the cover, but believe it may be post VN as well....Bodes

Many thanks Bodes, that's a great help

[Guardian 5]

Hi Simon,

Attached please find pictures of a very similar helmet that I wore while serving in the U.S. Army Reserve (i.e. the "TA") from 1981-1986. As Bodes alluded to, much of the headgear at this time was Vietnam era vintage and still retained the paint etc. as prescribed for service in Southeast Asia. As I went to high school in Boston, I can tell you that the "Combat Zone" was the nickname for Boston's red light district which had its hay day from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. It has long since been cleaned up. I wouldn't be surprised if that ding and tear was caused by a brick during one of the frequent brawls that occurred in the area, especially during the period of racial unrest that occurred in the mid to late 1970s.

The black on the ERDL pattern camouflage cover frequently faded. Sometimes soldiers would use a laundry marker to darken it as was the case with me. This pattern cover was replaced by the very similar woodland pattern and the "steel pot" which had been soldiering on since World War II, would be succeeded by the Kevlar helmet in the mid-eighties.

All the best,
TJ

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[Steve B.]

The ERDL covers date back to the mid-to-late 70s, but they didn't show up in my unit in Germany until 1977 or 78. They were worn alongside the more familiar Mitchell covers, and then Woodland covers until the steel pot was replaced by the kevlar helmet.

[lanners55]

Thanks folks, all very interesting stuff

[101combatvet]

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but it looks like the shell took a bullet hit.