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Navy Pilot Studio Portrait wearing H-4 Helmet - Korean War era?


lakenormanusa
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lakenormanusa

I found and purchased a studio portrait of a Navy Pilot

wearing flight gear and what appears to be an H-4 flight helmet.

Would this photo date from the Korean War era or Post-war?

 

Thanks for any info!

 

Rick

 

post-125711-0-96468800-1468631598.jpg

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Equipment experts will have to weigh in, but the helmet looks USN KW era to me. The patch on the sleeve reminds me of VF23 Flashers. Jeffro

post-2489-0-29109100-1468636096.jpeg

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northcoastaero

The helmet is probably the H-3 with the early cloth liner with three snaps on each side for oxygen mask attachment instead of the later liners that had two. Also, the additional front liner to helmet straps have not been added yet. The life preserver is the yellow MK-2 with two pouches

on the front for the night/day flares instead of the later ones that had four pouches for survival gear. I would say the photo is from the

Korean War era and not post war. Interesting possible ID on the squadron patch. I believe the squadron patches were usually on the right

chest area of the flight jacket? I know that sometimes the squadron patch was on one of the shoulders, possibly so that the seat shoulder

straps would not wear down the patch or possibly so that the squadron patch could be seen and not covered up by flight gear.

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lakenormanusa

Equipment experts will have to weigh in, but the helmet looks USN KW era to me. The patch on the sleeve reminds me of VF23 Flashers. Jeffro

attachicon.gifimage.jpeg

 

Thanks Jeffro! That's a great observation.

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lakenormanusa

The helmet is probably the H-3 with the early cloth liner with three snaps on each side for oxygen mask attachment instead of the later liners that had two. Also, the additional front liner to helmet straps have not been added yet. The life preserver is the yellow MK-2 with two pouches

on the front for the night/day flares instead of the later ones that had four pouches for survival gear. I would say the photo is from the

Korean War era and not post war. Interesting possible ID on the squadron patch. I believe the squadron patches were usually on the right

chest area of the flight jacket? I know that sometimes the squadron patch was on one of the shoulders, possibly so that the seat shoulder

straps would not wear down the patch or possibly so that the squadron patch could be seen and not covered up by flight gear.

 

Thanks for the detailed info northcoastaero!

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  • 4 months later...

The helmet appears to be early Korean War H-3 due to the dual pull-tabs on each side of the helmet with a grommet in the center, the H-4 had a single liner pull-tab. The Oxygen mask is probably the A13A.

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