fordmustanggt_350 Posted June 22, 2008 Share #1 Posted June 22, 2008 Hey guys, I have another question for you. I do not deal much with gas masks and I saw this one and was curious by what exactly it is. I have been doing a fair amount of research and have somewhat identified that this is a armored crew gas mask. The large face opening, the radio plug coming out of the mask, and the style of canister. Now if I had seen this at a swap meet I would walk right by it figuring it was a modern mask. Now what is confusing is that it is dated 3-44 on the canister and the descriptions I have read on the mask seem to place the style mask in WWII but the hose and carry case for the canister are both synthetic and I would place them as brand new. But I suspose it is possible to have had these items replaced later on. Does anybody know what the story on this mask and canister is? Thanks, Kevin Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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fordmustanggt_350 Posted June 22, 2008 Author Share #4 Posted June 22, 2008 more again Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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hawkdriver Posted June 23, 2008 Share #7 Posted June 23, 2008 What you have is a M-25 armored crewmember protective mask. If you put a two prong male plug on it, then you would have a M-24 aviators protective mask. I have many hours behind the M-24 mask and hated it almost as much as my ex-wife! These masks are fairly prolific and parts are easy to come by. I had a entire mail basket full of parts and filters that I tried to sell on eBay and couldn't get $.99 for it, so I pitched it as I didn't have room for a bunch of junk. These masks were used from late Vietnam until the new CVC mask come out, the M-42 I believe. I can't answer the date on the canister, I don't know if these filters were ever used on anything else. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MikeL Posted June 24, 2008 Share #8 Posted June 24, 2008 The mask has a 1984 & 1985 cure dates on the outlet valve cover & facepiece, respectively. I looked up the 1984 edition of NBC filter serviceability bulletin (SB 3-30-2) and they didn't even list the MSA lot 3- series of M10A1 filters (series 1 & 2 are listed). So I think this filter is newer than 1984 and may be original to the mask since it looks to be about 1985 manufacture. The NBC filter lot numbers listed don't seem to follow any format that includes a date but rather a manufacturer's serial number format and vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. All are prefixed by the manufacturer's initials though. Some examples: MSA 1-1 thru -4 MSA 2 Series PR 16-4 thru -6 PR 23-44 PR 23-4-5 PR 24-4-1 thru -2 By the way, the MSA lots above were listed as serviceable in 1984, the PR lots were listed as unserviceable. The mfr initials and lot numbers are typical of the format common to all the lot numbers. But as you can see there are no formats that would decode to a date. As a side note, usual NBC filter serviceablility criteria is a three year shelf life. Anything after that has to be re-inspected periodically. I seem to remember our M25 mask filters being changed out every so many years and the occasional filter change due to a bad lot number being discovered. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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