WWII_GI Posted May 5, 2020 Share #1 Posted May 5, 2020 Picked this one up last week, appears to be a 1950s era MP helmet. It has a great look, looks like there was once larger MP letters and a yellow band around the helmet but those have been painted over and a red band and smaller MP marking have been painted on. Has anyone seen any similar painted MP markings on 50s era helmets? I'm just used to seeing decals used on post WWII MP helmets. Thanks for looking -Steven Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WWII_GI Posted May 5, 2020 Author Share #2 Posted May 5, 2020 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickman983 Posted May 21, 2020 Share #3 Posted May 21, 2020 I ended up picking this one up from Steven. The paint is a bit rough in some spots but it looks great in hand. Here's some more information on the helmet: I believe it started life as a fixed bail helmet and the swivel bails were added on as a repair. There are actually three sets of MP markings on this helmet. The oldest is the larger style markings. Sometime after those were painted over a smaller, yellow MP was painted on. Finally the white MP marking was painted over top of the yellow with no repaint between. As fpr the bands there are at least two, maybe 3 different bands in the paint. There's the red band and the yellow band but there may also be a white band underneath the repaint. I'm not 100% sure about the white band just yet. Finally, the helmet is actually named at least once. It's very hard to make out but on at least one side of the helmet there appears to be a name. So far I've only been able to make out the first name but I'm going to spend some time trying to read what it says underneath the repaint. I've attached some of my own pictures of this helmet to the thread. As of now I have it paired with a white painted WWII liner. The liner was actually once a SP liner but I figure it will fill the roll for the time being until I find a proper MP liner. A few questions for those who are more knowledgeable about MP helmets than I: When would the large markings have been phased out in favor of the small markings? Any chance the large markings are WWII vintage? When would the yellow MP lettering have been used and by who? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickman983 Posted May 21, 2020 Share #4 Posted May 21, 2020 Picture of the overpainted name. Looks like there's potentially 3 lines. So far I've only been able to work out the fist name and a letter here or there. If I can't make out the full name should I attempt to strip the over paint away from that area to try to get an ID on this one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickman983 Posted May 21, 2020 Share #5 Posted May 21, 2020 There may be something on this side but it's not as clear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickman983 Posted May 21, 2020 Share #6 Posted May 21, 2020 Some pictures of the paint. First is the old MP marking coming out from under the repaint Not exactly sure what's on top but you can see some of the older, yellow MP marking on the left side in the crack More yellow underneath the current MP marking Towards the back of the helmet there's some paint exposed in the band. Looks like it goes OD -> white -> OD -> yellow -> red. I haven't found enough white elsewhere to be 100% sure there's a white band underneath the repaint though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickman983 Posted May 21, 2020 Share #7 Posted May 21, 2020 I spent more time looking at the name. I was able to make out the last name. I believe the third line is a serial number but I'm still working on making that out. The first two characters may be "US" but I'm not 100% sure on that. When did the US prefix come into use in serial numbers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huntssurplus Posted May 22, 2020 Share #8 Posted May 22, 2020 5 hours ago, Nickman983 said: I spent more time looking at the name. I was able to make out the last name. I believe the third line is a serial number but I'm still working on making that out. The first two characters may be "US" but I'm not 100% sure on that. When did the US prefix come into use in serial numbers? I believe the US prefix was first used in the 1950's for draftees. I think post-korean war personnel. Hunt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burning Hazard Posted May 23, 2020 Share #9 Posted May 23, 2020 Nice MP Helmet! I think it's a late WWII-occupation used and then continued service into the 60's where it was repainted and fitted with new chinstraps. Pat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickman983 Posted May 23, 2020 Share #10 Posted May 23, 2020 On 5/21/2020 at 11:52 PM, huntssurplus said: I believe the US prefix was first used in the 1950's for draftees. I think post-korean war personnel. Hunt Thanks Hunt, that's what I thought but I wasn't 100% certain. 52 minutes ago, Burning Hazard said: Nice MP Helmet! I think it's a late WWII-occupation used and then continued service into the 60's where it was repainted and fitted with new chinstraps. Pat Thanks Pat! That's kind of the same time frame I was thinking based on the markings. It's one of those helmets where the more I look it over the more I like it. I need to do a bit more work on deciphering the serial number and then start doing some research on an ID. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickman983 Posted June 12, 2020 Share #11 Posted June 12, 2020 I've been spending more time looking at the service number and think I may have it, or at least something close. I believe it is US62129132 If I understand how service numbers work that would indicate this individual was drafted in the late 60s. That seems a bit late to me so I'm not 100% sure if I've got that right. I guess next step is to try to research that service number and see if it matches the name. Is there any good way for me to do that online or would I need access to the national archives? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huntssurplus Posted June 13, 2020 Share #12 Posted June 13, 2020 You would need the archives. Personnel information isn't released for 69 years or something like that. You might be able to give it a go in Fold3, but I can't really think of any other post war service number databases. Hunt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickman983 Posted June 15, 2020 Share #13 Posted June 15, 2020 That's kind of what I expected, thanks for confirming. I'll see if I can't find anything out but I'm not expecting to make much more progress for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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