A Pre- Vietnam War Medic Helmet

**christek** · 10-29-2016, 08:59 AM

Greetings all,

I recently received this interesting helmet!
I have never had a medic helmet in my hands but to me this is a one looker original. I would guess it’s from the 1954-1962 era.
Interestingly the liner used was a paratrooper model and its over-painted in red. I haven’t really looked very hard for markings etc. as it’s all in pretty fragile dusty condition.
Thanks for looking!
The very best regards

**Redstalker** · 10-29-2016, 08:20 PM

Let's break this helmet down. The liner is a P55 liner so made between 1955 to 1964. Now in Reynosa's book Westinghouse received the first contracts for making airborne liners in 1958 for the P 55 range but the A straps are pinned to the liner and not under the A washers so this is unusual as all models from 1958 to 1964 were made this way. The liner itself is painted red and so what do we know about red painted helmets. Firstly red painted airborne helmets are associated with jump masters but also in the navy it means damage control/fire fighters. It was not uncommon for airborne liners to end up in the navy supply chain.
The helmet without more detailed pics of the rear seam, heat stamp numbers and a close up of the paint makes it hard to pin down a year on this. It is a swivel bale rear seam helmet and so could be anywhere from 1944 to the 1970s. You can see multiple layers of paint which was common for M1s as they were passed down from soldier to soldier. It looks to be cork based rather than sand but it could be the multiple layers of paint making it appear that way. The painted medic symbols look good to the helmet but I'm no expert on painted symbols so I'm sure someone else will let you know. Nice been there looking lid thanks for showing

**christek** · 10-30-2016, 01:10 AM

G'day Ian and many thanks for the information.
I can just read the sweat band after carefully removing. It certainly had been there for a while! 'DSA - 1- 4813' which I believe is an early 1960's number.
The liner has a makers mark, it's very hard to read but look's like a circle with the marks 'D 36' around it. Unfortunately I can't see a lot number inside the shell. It really does look like cork which interesting. It has had at least two coats of paint. The older coat also looks like the lighter colour consistent with WWII era. Here I can compare to my minty front seam.