GColloton Posted June 26, 2020 Share #1 Posted June 26, 2020 I picked up a U.S. M1 helmet and liner last week and I’ve been trying to figure out it’s origins. The liner has the soldiers name and rank painted on “CPL Jimmy Hopewell” as well as his divisions decal logo on each side, which I believe is the 702nd Railway Grand Division. I don’t normally collect helmets, but I really liked this one because of the soldiers history on it. I was thinking it was WWII from some things I’ve ID’d but the liner has a date of 1953 on it. Is it possible a new liner was installed for the Korean War after WWII? I googled the hell out of Corporal Jimmy or James Hopewell and there’s a few with military history but none that directly connects them to the 702nd. If anyone that has helmet knowledge can shed some light on its style or age that would be great. Even better if anyone has knowledge of the 702nd battalion. I’ve included what I could find so far. I paid $125 for it. Maybe that’s high, maybe it’s low. It’s cool to me because my brother has been deployed a bunch of times and is or was a company commander and in charge of transportation. He’s deployed again now, but I’m excited to show him this when he gets home in a few months. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1canpara Posted June 26, 2020 Share #2 Posted June 26, 2020 That’s a pretty cool helmet with a great history! Congrats! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Rooster Posted June 26, 2020 Share #3 Posted June 26, 2020 The steel is a ww2 produced front seam with its original straps. Looks like it might be a schluter by the crimp marks at the seam. Sorta look like little circles... Is there a Big S on the underside of the brim below the heat stamp? The liner.... Look in the crown for a raised stamp to see what brand it is. The headband inside the liner is dated 1953, but the liner looks ww2 with the grommet in front. Is the webbing all green in it or dirty Khaki color? I cant tell for sure from the pics. Nice one ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cap Camouflage Pattern I Posted June 26, 2020 Share #4 Posted June 26, 2020 49 minutes ago, rooster77 said: The headband inside the liner is dated 1953, but the liner looks ww2 with the grommet in front. Is the webbing all green in it or dirty Khaki color? I cant tell for sure from the pics. Looks like OD #7, which would make it one made between 1950 and 1954, which had the insignia eyelet. Nice helmet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lsparks Posted June 26, 2020 Share #5 Posted June 26, 2020 I like it. I don’t think 125 was out of line. Neat pick up!Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GColloton Posted June 26, 2020 Author Share #6 Posted June 26, 2020 2 hours ago, rooster77 said: The steel is a ww2 produced front seam with its original straps. Looks like it might be a schluter by the crimp marks at the seam. Sorta look like little circles... Is there a Big S on the underside of the brim below the heat stamp? The liner.... Look in the crown for a raised stamp to see what brand it is. The headband inside the liner is dated 1953, but the liner looks ww2 with the grommet in front. Is the webbing all green in it or dirty Khaki color? I cant tell for sure from the pics. Nice one ! Thanks for everyone’s contributions and comments so far. This forum is awesome. I see the two little circles at the seam. Are the two circles the heat stamp? I do see something that looks like an 8 or m. I took better photos. In the liner I can feel and see a stamp. I didn’t notice that at all before. It’s a cross with CAPAC in it going up and down. Above it is the numbers 53 and above that looks to be the flaming bomb in a circle. Underneath is the number 8, And in each corner there looks to be a number but I can only make out a 1 in the top right and a 2 in the bottom right. The webbing looks all OD green. I took some better photos of the liner webbing, stamp, and decals. So a Korean War liner in a WWII helmet? Do soldiers hold on to their helmets between wars? Besides the leather band wearing away both the helmet and liner are in pretty good shape. The helmet shows nice texture also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickman983 Posted June 26, 2020 Share #7 Posted June 26, 2020 Nice pickup. The two circles are the weld marks for attaching the rim. the heatstamp should be somewhere near the rim of the helmet on the inside, typically by the brim. The liner is a post WWII manufactured liner using WWII molds. the flaming bomb is actually the westinghouse logo. From what I remember CAPAC was using some westinghouse molds after WWII to produce liners so you'll occasionally find them double stamped like this. Helmets and liners were used as long as they were serviceable, so it's not uncommon to find a WWII shell or liner used all the way through Vietnam. It's likely that the helmet was just reissued to Cpl. Still, it's a nice set and I think you got it for a decent price. That liner is very neat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GColloton Posted June 28, 2020 Author Share #8 Posted June 28, 2020 Sorry, I couldn’t respond yesterday, I’m a new member so I had used up my posts for the day. I’ve learned so much from this site and all these responses about this M1 helmet. Thank you again. Hopefully I can contribute to other members of this forum as well. Still hoping someone has more info on the 702nd Grand railway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
conn Posted June 29, 2020 Share #9 Posted June 29, 2020 thank you for sharing the helmet, that happens to be one of the coolest state side duty I have ever seen, you are very lucky semper fi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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