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Helmet of Louis Huber SC 1/c Guadalcanal 8/42 - 6/43


Theorywolf
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This is my third helmet I've ID'ed to Vet at Guadalcanal. I had a good feeling about this on on ebay and won the bidding. Geoff at Golden Arrow Research got the file for me. Louis's parents immigrated to the U.S. in the 1800s. His father was from Germany and his mother Switzerland. Louis was born in 1894 in Paterson, N.J. He first enlisted in the Navy in 1917. He served aboard the USS Illinois and several Cargo vessels as a fireman and as a ship's cook. He left the Navy in 1919. Between the wars he was married and had a daughter. He was a short order cook most of that time. He played baseball for the city leagues. He enlisted in June 1942. in August 1942 he was assigned to USN Mobile Hospital #8 in New York. The unit trained in New York and left for the Pacific in August. The hospital group landed at Guadalcanal in August 1942. The unit had first build the hospital and set up the operations under the stress of the heat and Japanese bombers. They had to set up their prefab Quonset Huts. Just like the Marines, the medical unit had many shortages during the early pat of the battle. Louis cooked for the wounded warriors from August 1942 to June 1943. When he reinlisted he was 47 years old. When he was discharged he was 50 yrs old. He states in the files that he began to notice shortness of breath when having to run for fox holes when the hospital was under bombing raids by the Japanese. He was sent back to N.J. Naval training Center for treatment and continued in the Navy. In March 1944 he was assigned to the LST 508 for transport to Devon, England. He was a cook at the USN hospital there. He was sent back home because of continued health issues. His only wish was to, at least, continue in the USN until the war ended. He did so in New York until discharged after the war. Great to have his helmet and file.

 

The helmet fire mark is 51D. I have another Pacific U.S. Marine camo helmet from this same batch! The Hawley liner matches the shell in terms of patina. The inside of the shell was well used for shaving. Louis scratched his name and rank to the front of the shell. Inside the shell he stamped his name many times and has his signature twice in the shell. The signatures in the shell are an exact match to the many signatures in his file. The helmet was purchased near Paterson N.J.!

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