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Navy deck crew helmet heavily marked


WW2JAKE
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got this one today, great price and something ive ALWAYS wanted... although i have no real interest in navy items deck crew items are a huge love of mine.

this guy was stationed at NAS Moffet feild in california which at that time was a Nasa ran field with the "Black Cats" (VF-91)

if anyone has anymore insight let me know! goggles were added by me i'd have added green strap ones if i had them... this guy seemed to scratch who he was with EVERYWHERE

post-125364-0-81416100-1445743750.jpgpost-125364-0-31652500-1445743752.jpgpost-125364-0-88458600-1445743753.jpg

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Nice cranial helmet. The etched identifications on all the parts were required in case a piece fell off, then it could be identified. Loose pieces on the flight deck could be ingested into turning engines. Engine then destroyed. The Navy takes that loose gear pretty serious.

Green color indicates Squadron Maintenance type. Work Center #130 indicates the helmet was assigned to the Paraloft. Hope this helps.

 

Chris

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The squadron is VP-91, not VF-91. I am sure that is just a typo. They were a P-3 Patrol squadron, so this particular cranial helmet never saw a flight deck :-)

 

Chris

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The squadron is VP-91, not VF-91. I am sure that is just a typo. They were a P-3 Patrol squadron, so this particular cranial helmet never saw a flight deck :-)

 

Chris

woops!

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Nice cranial helmet. The etched identifications on all the parts were required in case a piece fell off, then it could be identified. Loose pieces on the flight deck could be ingested into turning engines. Engine then destroyed. The Navy takes that loose gear pretty serious.

Green color indicates Squadron Maintenance type. Work Center #130 indicates the helmet was assigned to the Paraloft. Hope this helps.

 

Chris

that makes sense, I remember working on a runway and having to pick up ever little thing there was... pieces of wire from previous work, rocks, nails, whatever was there we had to get it off. all while the runway was still active... talk about crazy! and driving over the runways at Luke AFB and having to stop before crossing each to make sure nothing could fall onto the runway... but it'd be hard to imagine if something did fall off one of the helmets and was sucked into a jets intake that it would even still have identifying marks on it that could link it to someone specific, if it fell off and didnt get sucked up i could see where it'd be handy though

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northcoastaero

Interesting documented cranial. I believe the designation is HGU-25/P. There should be a specification tag on the inside

of the tan material, just above the neck area. This should indicate the date of mfr. According to wikipedia.org vpnavy.org

and some books that I have, Naval Reserve Squadron VP-91 Stingers or Black Cats was established on 11-1-1970 and

disestablished on 3-31-1999 and flew the Lockheed P-3A, B, and C Orion aircraft. The headband on the ear protectors has a

date of 1988. Cranial could be from the P-3B or even the P-3C era. The green color could possibly be for In Flight

Technician or passenger? I believe the Flight Engineer cranial for the P-3 acft. had communications installed with a very

long cable.

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Interesting documented cranial. I believe the designation is HGU-25/P. There should be a specification tag on the inside

of the tan material, just above the neck area. This should indicate the date of mfr. According to wikipedia.org vpnavy.org

and some books that I have, Naval Reserve Squadron VP-91 Stingers or Black Cats was established on 11-1-1970 and

disestablished on 3-31-1999 and flew the Lockheed P-3A, B, and C Orion aircraft. The headband on the ear protectors has a

date of 1988. Cranial could be from the P-3B or even the P-3C era. The green color could possibly be for In Flight

Technician or passenger? I believe the Flight Engineer cranial for the P-3 acft. had communications installed with a very

long cable.

yes it does have a tag, i couldnt shrink that particular picture below 251K... its a 1994 tag with a 1996 stamp. putting the owner with VP-91 when they were the black cats rather than the stingers or the previous pink panthers... Ive been trying to figure out what all the markings mean but really all i can figure is VP-91 when i search anything else i get no results...

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The markings are;

 

KF4 is the three digit squadron designator used on all maintenance paperwork, tools and equipment. All squadrons had an individual code assigned to them.

 

W/C 130 is the Aviation life support work center. Parachute riggers (PRs) worked in this shop. Some squadrons also has an ejection seat shop that was a branch of this shop, the seat shop was W/C 13B and had the rate of AMEs working in the shop.

 

Apparently this cranial was the #4 cranial assigned to work center 130. This cranial would be assigned to an individual. The individual was responsible for the cranial and its whereabouts. If it was left on an aircraft, then that individual was in a lot of trouble.

 

Most everything was etched in Naval Aviation Maint. This was done for accountability reasons. I have seen an engine (J-52) ingested screwdriver identified to an individual toolbox by crash investigators. Those numbers were used to track every item in Navair Maint and were a bid deal.

 

Chris

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The markings are;

KF4 is the three digit squadron designator used on all maintenance paperwork, tools and equipment. All squadrons had an individual code assigned to them.

W/C 130 is the Aviation life support work center. Parachute riggers (PRs) worked in this shop. Some squadrons also has an ejection seat shop that was a branch of this shop, the seat shop was W/C 13B and had the rate of AMEs working in the shop.

Apparently this cranial was the #4 cranial assigned to work center 130. This cranial would be assigned to an individual. The individual was responsible for the cranial and its whereabouts. If it was left on an aircraft, then that individual was in a lot of trouble.

Most everything was etched in Naval Aviation Maint. This was done for accountability reasons. I have seen an engine (J-52) ingested screwdriver identified to an individual toolbox by crash investigators. Those numbers were used to track every item in Navair Maint and were a bid deal.

Chris

so it is possible to identify the specific person?
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so it is possible to identify the specific person?

At one point in time it was possible to determine who was assigned that helmet. The squadron itself would have had local logbooks that would indicate who was assigned to the workcenter and what gear they were assigned. These records were not required to be kept longer than 5 years. After that they were usually trashed or destroyed. So, it would be very difficult if not impossible to put a name to the cranial helmet.

 

That helmet was probably worn by a Parachute Rigger and used whenever he was working onboard the P-3 aircraft or on the Tarmac. Nice helmet!!

 

Here is a picture of me and some fellow shipmates in the catwalk on the USS Theodore Roosevelt. I am in the white jersey.

 

post-10825-0-82778000-1445975073.jpeg

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At one point in time it was possible to determine who was assigned that helmet. The squadron itself would have had local logbooks that would indicate who was assigned to the workcenter and what gear they were assigned. These records were not required to be kept longer than 5 years. After that they were usually trashed or destroyed. So, it would be very difficult if not impossible to put a name to the cranial helmet.

That helmet was probably worn by a Parachute Rigger and used whenever he was working onboard the P-3 aircraft or on the Tarmac. Nice helmet!!

Here is a picture of me and some fellow shipmates in the catwalk on the USS Theodore Roosevelt. I am in the white jersey.

attachicon.gifimage.jpeg

yes I thought about that, luckily there is an online log with contact info to previous members of vp-91 with years they served, I may get lucky and send pictures asking if they recognize it or who it belonged to.

 

 

Also cool picture! My overall goal with these is to get the vests helmets and jersey for every combination of colors seen on a deck

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