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Anyone have an idea what this is??

Article about: I obtained this military visor with some other Vietnam War era items and am at a total loss to what it is. First of all I find no markings on it and it is made of similar material as the old

  1. #1

    Default Anyone have an idea what this is??

    I obtained this military visor with some other Vietnam War era items and am at a total loss to what it is. First of all I find no markings on it and it is made of similar material as the old Army baseball cap. I spent many years in the US Army and don't recall ever seeing one of these so it may be a specialty item. I certainly appreciate any help anyone can give me!!Anyone have an idea what this is??Anyone have an idea what this is??

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  3. #2
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    Hi Sargetom:

    While I cannot confirm what your item is, I think it is most likely a "hood" worn during Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) training. Such "hoods" of this sort were nothing more than an elongated/lengthened visor (longer than a standard length), with some vision also blocked to the sides, that would keep the pilot/trainee from looking outside of the cockpit when worn. This would force them to rely on instruments only (and helps with distractions during training), a very necessary skill for times when Visual Flight Rules (VFR) cannot be followed due to conditions. Like clouds & fog among them, but when one has to fly anyway - the answer is using instruments.

    I can't confirm this was a military item because I took flight training as a civilian. But we used something similar to the item shown, a very long time ago. So that is what I think it is. Known as "IFR hoods" in civilian aviation parlance, I do not know if the Army ever called them the same thing.

    If interested, you may be able to confirm your item by contacting the US Army Aviation Museum at Rucker:

    Contact Us – United States Army Aviation Museum

    I also agree with you on how similar your item looks to the old Army "Cap, Hot Weather" ball caps (remember the Air Force used them too, so perhaps this is an Air Force item and another place to check if Rucker turns up a blank) and if the item is an IFR hood, then maybe it was used during the same time frame that the ball caps were? Sooner to the beginning perhaps?

    Hope this helps.

  4. #3

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    Thank would make sense and thank you for your help! Yes I will contact the museum of their help!!

    Sargetom

  5. #4
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    Sounds good. When you learn what your item is, would you mind please posting it here? I was also thinking that there are likely forums that focus on aviation history and the military so perhaps someone in such a place would know? I have no recommendations though as that is not my interest.

    I do not know enough about Army aviation (for example) to know just when pilot trainees were required to wear hard flight helmets (at least since the mid-1960's that I know of and likely much further back, late 40's-early 50's would be my guess). But maybe your item was to be worn under a flight helmet with the IFR hood visor sticking out in order to block the view? Otherwise, why strip the material off of what looks to have been a ball cap (the part covering the head)? Unless somebody was just messing around with it.

    This is speculation but I am trying to determine a plausible explanation how such a thing would have worked, if it really was an IFR hood used by the US military. Also a chance it may have been experimental and never even adopted, or from another nation's military. I have been around a lot of US military items over the years though and have never seen something like this, so I dunno... good luck with it.

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