Vietnam helmet questoin - camo band with name?

[Martinjmpr]

For those who are knowledgeable about Vietnam-era helmets, a couple of questions:

 

First of all, was it customary/common for soldiers to wear the elastic band over the Mitchell-pattern helmet cover? I see some photos with the band, some without. I'm specifically looking for the period of late 1966 through early 1967 as this is for a display of my dad's old helmet cover (see separate post.) Dad was involved in Operation Junction City in 1967 where he was the assistant S-3 Air for the 11th ACR.

 

Second, was it common practice for soldiers to put their names on the camouflage bands at this time? In my time (1980 - 2005) it was quite common and in fact, became a uniform standard by the time I retired in 2005 to the extent that anybody who did NOT have their name on their camo band was technically "out of uniform."

 

However, looking at photos from Vietnam, I don't see any where soldiers put their name on the camo band. So I'm thinking that it would not be appropriate to display Dad's helmet this way.

 

What I'm looking to do, eventually, is to display my dad's helmet next to mine (I have my Kevlar helmet from Operation Iraqi Freedom with the DCU helmet cover.)

 

Thanks for any help!

[MattS]

As your dad was an officer, I would say yes he probably had a camo band but without his name written on it. Those used to be $1 items until recently, but I think someone here can help you out.

You could display the 2 helmets side-by-side with a framed photo of each of you.

Sorry to hear about his passing.

[Cap Camouflage Pattern I]

Plenty of soldiers wrote their name on the camouflage band in Vietnam. Most soldiers had the band, some didn't, some wore two. Marines werent issued camouflage bands so they were extremely uncommon with them. About half of marines went without a band, and about half improvised, usually but cutting a circle of tire inner tube, but occasionally they used other materials, like 550 cord, rubber gaskets, rubber bands, etc.

[Cap Camouflage Pattern I]

 

[Martinjmpr]

Thanks for the great pictures! To me it makes sense to write the name on it, if for no other reason than knowing which helmet is yours!

 

One thing I remember from Dad is that AFAIK he didn't bring any jungle uniforms back with him. I'm assuming these were likely turned in as soldiers were leaving Vietnam? I do remember he had the old green fatigues with the full color patches and the black-on-white name tags, because long after the uniforms had been given away, he was still using the name tags on his hunting gear, duffel bags, etc.

[MattS]

Thanks for the great pictures! To me it makes sense to write the name on it, if for no other reason than knowing which helmet is yours!

 

I agree, but if your dad was the only captain in the unit, he probably didn't need to put his name on there as his rank was already sewn on. That was the reasoning behind my guess.

[canteenman]

I don't recall anyone in my unit putting their name on their helmet band (maybe I wouldn't have even noticed it). The covers themselves had all sorts of names, graffiti, etc. I suppose it's possible it was SOP in some units, but most guys just wanted to do their job and didn't like playing army with little things like being told to "write your name on your camo band".