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Bringback NVA Helmet


AnDuc49
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I was able to pick this one up recently so I'll share it here

 

The helmet is a missing it's liner but overall is in nice salty condition. The inside is dirty and there's dried mud throughout the liner. The soldier used a pin and stippled their name Minh Hạnh" along with two doves in the rear brim. Surprisingly, the name would belong to a female, so this most likely belonged to a female soldier. The seller did included a photo of the capture tag which belonged to another helmet in the same grouping. Unfortunately no luck on finding him yet.

 

From what I've read, the sweatband is a early one, with woven bamboo covered with a thin piece of plastic. These were perhaps Chinese exports to Vietnam early on or a private purchase items. The blue pads are foam. I assume they were a field repair/modification, but they have mud on them as well, so they've been together

 

I hope you guys enjoy it!

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Very nice example! The two dove were a very common inscription in VC and NVA Helmets. I understand they were representative of North and South Vietnam reunification.

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you could add a salty badge to add some more character for a display, I see lots of well used weathered badges on ebay

 

Most of those "salty old badges" are not original. My personal philosophy is to not "enhance" anything; they are best left just as they originally came back, but that's just me. Badges were actually pretty rare on captured sun and pith helmets. I have about 40 such helmets and only three or four were captured with badges.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Very nice helmet, I like the capture tag! It's always great to have a Vietnam item with provenance! I'm not sure about the blue pads.

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USCapturephotos

I have a few Vietnam bring back pieces with vet information but only one with an old tag. I especially like yours because of the tag and I agree with the other forum member....leave it as is.

Paul

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I have a few Vietnam bring back pieces with vet information but only one with an old tag. I especially like yours because of the tag and I agree with the other forum member....leave it as is.

Paul

That is exactly what I intend to do. I think keeping them in the configuration it was brought back in is a important part of keeping the history of the item. It just has a story to tell

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USCapturephotos

Have you been able to learn anything more about Gunnery Sergeant Korineck? I bought a GI bring back NVA piece a few years ago from another collector. Luckily he had the name of the veteran and with some searching I was able to locate the still living veteran and I wrote to him. He verified everything about the piece and we corresponded for quite awhile. I kept all of those letters with the stories and information that he had shared. It made the piece so much more important to me than even before.Maybe with a little luck you could find your veteran and do the same?

Paul

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USMC-RECON0321

Nice Helmet. But not sure if I'm missing it, but I'm not seeing the picture of a capture tag? The one posted in post #7 just looks like one added by a seller or collector. "3rd Divisions, 9th Marines" doesn't make sense written that way or the fact it says "Divisions"? Maybe it's meant to be 3rd Bn, 9th Marines, 3rd Marine Division (or 3/9 3rd Mar Div)? Not doubting the helmet, but definitely not an official capture tag written by the Military or a Marine Vet.

 

Troy

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I saw it the tagged one on eBay before the auction closed and tried to do some rudimentary research on the vet using published morning reports and rosters, etc. While I didn't spend an awful lot of time on it I couldn't find any information on him. Many of the published documents are really hard to read so I did random samplings covering the period when he was specified to be in country but came up empty. And like Recon0321 says, the tag is pretty ambiguous so it is hard to pin down what exact unit they mean; it is hard to believe that someone in the Marines wrote it. It just didn't give me a warm fuzzy.

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I had a short correspondence between the seller before I purchased the helmet, but from what he said the tag was already there when he purchased it. So I wonder if a previous collector or museum had added the tag rather than it being done by the vet

 

 

I've also tried researching the veteran, but no luck. Nothing on rosters on websites and nothing on obituariries. There's roughly 6 people I think with the name and his age in the US, so I wonder if the info is correct if he's alive

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