Iraqi helmet with red circle insignia; fatality

[mcmike]

Bought this helmet a few months ago, and it has an interesting story from the vet:

 

“I was 10th MTN 1/32 INF Cco. stationed out of Ft. Drum, NY. We were the only battalion from our division in Iraq for most of our 16 month deployment. By the time i left i had earned 8 combat patches from other units our batallion was attached to. I don't mind answering the questions, it's when they start asking what it was like and "did you kill anybody" when i tend to shut up.

“This is a helmet pulled out of Iraq in 2003. I don't know the markings on the front. To be honest i would love to know what they mean. But as you can see the poor guy I got this from received a headache in the back of the helmet. It has been cleaned and disinfected. The peice of shrapnel is still imbedded in the bad of the helmet. If you have anymore questions please ask and I will answer. I am the person who pulled this out of the country.

“i picked up off a dead iraqi in the town of iskandiryah (sp). they were guarding a muntions depot and arms manufacturing plant [probably Hateen Munitions Complex]. it was leveled with 155's and cluster bombs. that town was also known as little fallujah.”

 

Shield of the 1/32:

[mcmike]

Front with insignia

[mcmike]

Back with shrapnel damage. Shrapnel is still in place.

[mcmike]

Back pic......

[mcmike]

Shrapnel hole

[mcmike]

Inside of helmet with shrapnel - you can see the screw-threads on the shrapnel.

[mcmike]

Interior of helmet. According to the vet, the shrapnel to the helmet did not kill the Iraqi soldier. Amazingly, this flimsy helmet stopped the metal, probably because it hit the rivet. Unfortunately, the soldier's uniform was less protection from other bits of metal, which proved to be his undoing.

[mcmike]

And finally, the location of Iskandariyah (Alexandria, after the conqueror). referred to as Little Fallujah.

[mcmike]

Iskandariyah

[mcmike]

From Wiki:

In ancient times Alexandria stood half way between Babylon (the place of Alexander's death) and Seleucia on the Tigris (the capital of the Seleucid Empire, very near to modern Baghdad).

As of now, most of the town is made up of slums. Buildings are built from brick, mud, and sheet metal. The nearby city of Musayyib houses the largest power plant in Iraq, made by Russian engineers.^{[citation needed]} The Hateen Munitions Complex located in and around Alexandria housed the majority of the munitions for the former regime.

[Jarhead8007]

Strange thing about those Iraqi helmets - they don't seem to have an external shell (at least I've never seen a steel pot to go with them). It's just what we would use as a liner for the old M-1 helmets, but about 2x as thick. They kept the rain and sun off their heads and that's about it. They might as well have been wearing tinfoil hats or propeller beanies for all the good they did against shrapnel and bullets.

[mcmike]

I don't think Saddam was overly concerned about the safety of his troops. The Helmets might as well have had Mattell stamped on the inside.

[badash5946]

Neat item to add to the collection!

[Mercenary25]

Good stuff!

[BOLO]

I don't think Saddam was overly concerned about the safety of his troops. The Helmets might as well have had Mattell stamped on the inside.

 

the Iraqi culture is like a warrior society they have a different mind set & religion, they probably consider wearing too much body armor as a sign of cowardice, and Allah will protect them

 

Saddam even called the Americans cowards for not standing up and fighting a ground war instead of dropping bombs from high in the sky and not fighting man to man

[mcmike]

Thanks for that viewpoint, Bolo. I have seen plenty of speculation as to the use of essentially non-ballistic helmets by the Iraqis, but no explanation. Your points make sense. Remember the U.S. was slow in incorporating automatic weapons on a wide scale because "the deciders" thought that soldiers would just waste bullets, and therefore money. Think how many lives may have been saved by timely issuance of these weapons.

[swag]

Granted my Arabic was never any good, but I think those are numbers in the red circle; "5" and "1" (possibly "2") IIRC.

[mcmike]

I believe that Arabic is written right to left. I was told on an Iraqi Militaria site that numerals are written left to right. I don't know. Here is a list of Arabic numerals:

 

Arabic numerals

 

٠ = 0

١ = 1

٢ = 2

٣ = 3

٤ = 4

٥ = 5

٦ = 6

٧ = 7

٨ = 8

٩ = 9

١٠ = 10

 

At least according to Google Translate, anyway.

[ScottG]

Hi Mike, the helmet is a ballistic fiber helmet that is Iraqi produced (M-90) it is missing the rubber bumper which is not uncommon. The model was based on the South Korean M-76 ballistic fiber helmet which Iraq imported during the 1970s-1980s and called the M-80. When the Iran-Iraq War was over the Iraqi's tried to produce their own version (the M-90) and had issues with the pressed fiber separating along the edges (hence the need for a rubber bumper). So there are some ballistic qualities present although nothing on the level of the PASGT or ACH helmets used today. Scott.

[BOLO]

the arabic numerals appear to be number 86

 

 

http://danielschereck.com/wp2002arabia/wp-arabicnumbers.htm

[mcmike]

Scott & Bolo: Thanks for the info!

[agate hunter]

Nice helmet!

[Brig]

 

the Iraqi culture is like a warrior society they have a different mind set & religion, they probably consider wearing too much body armor as a sign of cowardice, and Allah will protect them

 

 

I disagree...seeing how much they hid, lied, and used human shields while blowing up unsuspecting children in the name of their war...I don't think they have a problem with cowardice. Not to mention all the rapes and torture pre-war. In fact, we captured a few guys wearing cloth vests, specifically made to carry plates...and they were empty, no panels

 

I think the lack of body armor is for 2 reasons. A) it's expensive. Saddam was a notorious cheapskate...his 'crystal' chandeliers were actually plastic, his 24K gold doors were actually thin sheet gold hammered over wood, etc, etc. And , they didn't have the strength to do it all day. Americans don't realize that, compared to the rest of the world, they're rather big & strong. When I was in Israel training with their Counter-Terror unit in 2005, these guys were half our size, and I'm not that bulky. They all called us Rambo & Arnold, as did the Peruvians we worked with in Iraq. An Israeli CT guy put on our FLAK and said he'd rather die than wear it in combat, it was much too heavy-and this guy is their Spec Ops. Their officer rations barely kept the hunger pains down on us. We as Americans have good diets, of the option of, and medical, facilities, etc. The small Americans are still often taller and broader than the average Middle Easterner.

[USCapturephotos]

I had a bring back Iraqi helmet that my good buddy a member of the 1st Cav division brought back. It still had helmet netting on it. I had it sitting under my computer desk, came home one day and my cat had peed all over it ruining the netting. It was funny but I was really bummed too.

Paul

[sgtdorango]

I have a few of these bringbacks but none with the cool story yours does....one i have has a black circle on front with remnants of numbers too....not sure which unit it is either but pretty cool......mike