Jump to content

1/22 ARVN Commander M1 helmet?


644td
 Share

Recommended Posts

Had my first off day since Hurricane Laura hit Louisiana. I’m now in Pensacola working Hurricane Sally and I went to a antique shop and found this Vietnam era ARVN advisor helmet. The name on the front doesn’t match what’s written inside the helmet but it’s the same guy, not sure if it was a put on the front as a joke, just a hypothesis. The ARVN is painted and the Infantry/AB is a decal. I found a Lt. Col Terrance McClain with the 22nd ARVN Infantry but have not confirmed anything at the moment. Sorry for the poor quality pictures.

Marty

339A6B6B-67A8-40D5-87F1-41FB02C45B0F.jpeg

26C7BCE8-2F05-493C-9EEC-565397DAE15B.jpeg

E6688944-1C01-4444-8606-6E0EAF0A6333.jpeg

0E3675CB-4925-4710-87D1-BB2159F673B3.jpeg

F2E69BBC-E083-45CE-A166-73D72B51A6B4.jpeg

F54C5808-A36B-42A1-82C7-8F26341209C5.jpeg

070021BC-904B-450F-ADA3-E2DD02583EE7.jpeg

4FFEB811-5A46-4745-A692-833C9A5635D2.jpeg

42107703-86DA-496F-9F71-8B51344D32C3.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I’m 80% convinced this is the guy. The helmet was not stored very well and the name on the front of the helmet I believe and may be totally off base but I believe it’s a nickname or the sound of McClain in  Vietnamese comes out as McClean 😁.

 

marty

134BBCD7-F09B-43D2-A615-284EB3BEDB06.jpeg

EC4A54FF-35F2-43DE-AA2C-B971105AE97B.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just found this picture. The Ranger tab on his left shoulder would be in line with the Airborne on the helmet, if I’m correct the Airborne tab would also be for rangers training. 

E3B274C2-09C7-40CB-ADCE-A3B22554FDDE.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On the helmet you can see a space where another letter would have been attached to the front of the name.  The M in McClean would be the reasonable guess.

Also, the jump wings on the later uniform are for a Master Parachutist, which he would have earned after the basic jump school.  You don't have to be jump qualified to be Ranger, but typically infantry officers would go to jump school then to Ranger school either before or right after Officer's Basic Course at Fort Benning.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cap Camouflage Pattern I

I hope it's real but it has some unanswered questions. The insignia is for the ARVN Rangers (BDQ). There could very well be some missing part of the story but it seems unlikely that an advisor to an infantry division would wear BDQ insignia rather than the division insignia. And while I dont claim to have seen every BDQ helmet by a long shot, I've tried my best too, and the only ones I've seen with the tiger in a shield on the side are cadre at Duc My.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Cap Camouflage Pattern I said:

I hope it's real but it has some unanswered questions. The insignia is for the ARVN Rangers (BDQ). There could very well be some missing part of the story but it seems unlikely that an advisor to an infantry division would wear BDQ insignia rather than the division insignia. And while I dont claim to have seen every BDQ helmet by a long shot, I've tried my best too, and the only ones I've seen with the tiger in a shield on the side are cadre at Duc My.

 

I have a call into the vendor at the antique store to get a back story to how he acquired the helmet and a call into The  Gettysburg times to pull the interview with Col. McClain from Sept/2014 in hopes it will shed some light on the helmet. I have zero doubts as to the helmet being real but would love to fill in gaps. The helmet could’ve had a cover during his tour and maybe the helmet was painted and things added by is friends before he left?? Many possibilities...????????.....  

 

 

Marty

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, 644td said:

Just found this picture. The Ranger tab on his left shoulder would be in line with the Airborne on the helmet, if I’m correct the Airborne tab would also be for rangers training. 

E3B274C2-09C7-40CB-ADCE-A3B22554FDDE.jpeg

When one see's the Infantry School with the AIRBORNE Tab, this indicates men assigned to the Airborne Department, a component of the Infantry school at Benning,  by men in the Ranger Department, all these men were ranger qualified, and would wear their RANGER Tabs on the shoulder, without the AIRBORNE Tab, , so it is very appropriate that the decal is shown without the RANGER tab on the helmet.

 

Two examples of Ranger Department people, note no AIRBORNE Tab.

 

image.png.47a7418ff1458153a03de67a1e83ffe9.pngimage.png.f074da0ed14373b7b106043d48437df8.png

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, patches said:

When one see's the Infantry School with the AIRBORNE Tab, this indicates men assigned to the Airborne Department, a component of the Infantry school at Benning,  by men in the Ranger Department, all these men were ranger qualified, and would wear their RANGER Tabs on the shoulder, without the AIRBORNE Tab, , so it is very appropriate that the decal is shown without the RANGER tab on the helmet.

 

Two examples of Ranger Department people, note no AIRBORNE Tab.

 

image.png.47a7418ff1458153a03de67a1e83ffe9.pngimage.png.f074da0ed14373b7b106043d48437df8.png

 

 

 

Thank you for the correction, facts are important.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, 644td said:

 

Thank you for the correction, facts are important.

There will of course be Ranger Qualified people assigned to the Airborne Department and conversely the Infantry School, and will be naturally wearing their RANGER Tabs, that's where the confusion starts if one see's photos of them with or without the AIRBORNE Tab, they need not necessarily be assigned to the Ranger Department.

 

And this, a late 70s photo then M/Gen David E. Grange, see how he wears both RANGER Tab and AIRBORNE Tab over his Infantry School patch! he was in neither the Airborne Department or the Ranger Department, he was then the commanding general of the Infantry School and i believe Fort Benning, I'm imagining he was wearing the AIRBORNE Tab to show one of the functions of the school, the RANGER Tab? He wears that one cause he was Ranger Qualified and would wear it as a matter of course (Grange as we know holds three Awards of the Combat Infantyman Badge for WWII, Korea and Vietnam, and is still around at 95).image.png.cd49e391729ccf1923b1eee333d1e5a3.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Others always on McClain’s mind during battles
 BY ABBEY ZELKO
Times Staff Writer
As a child growing up dur- ing World War II, Col. Ter- rence “Mac” McClain spent his time collecting and play- ing with war cards and think- ing about the day that he would join the military.
“There was always one pile you kept and another pile you played with,” McClain, 80, recalled while sitting on the back porch of his Biglerville home with his wife and two Dobermans by his side.
It didn’t take long for this childhood game to become a reality, McClain said.
Although he knew from the time he was young that he wanted to join the military someday, the influence from a family friend, a Distinguished Service Cross winner from World War II who stopped a German commando raid single-handedly, gave him the extra encouragement he need- ed to sign up.
In 1956, after graduating as a distinguished military graduate from The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, he joined the mili- tary and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the regu- lar army.
Throughout his 27-year career, McClain has served in numerous infantry assign- ments including the 101st Air- borne Division and the XVIII Airborne Corps and has com- manded troop units at the pla- toon, company and battalion levels.
McClain’s service included overseas tours in Vietnam and Korea. He volunteered for both assignments.
“Cops arrest bad guys, fire- men go to fires and infantry fight wars,” he said. “That’s what you wear the tape for. Otherwise, don’t sign up.”
McClain said one of the highlights of his service was the break out of Tan Canh, Vietnam in April of 1972.
The North Vietnamese had launched a series of offen- sives, and the 320th Infantry Regiment, supported by tanks, had overrun Tan Canh. Mc- Clain was serving as an advi- sor to the South Vietnamese 23rd Division, which was destroyed at Tan Canh, but he was able to get all nine of his American men out. His men used the tanks as cover and gained fire superiority over the North Vietnamese rifle
company and platoon of tanks. McClain earned his Silver Star and the Purple Heart for his service during the break- out of Tan Canh. Throughout his 27 years of service, he has also received the Combat In- fantry Badge, the Bronze Star for Valor with four oak leaf clusters and the Air Medal for Valor with six oak leaf clus-
ters.
After he made it out of Tan
Canh, McClain tried to call his wife to let her know that he was alright. He said he was only authorized one telephone call, but when the switchboard operator asked him for the telephone number, he realized he didn’t know his area code. In fact, he didn’t know what an area code was at all.
“I had no clue what he was talking about,” he said.
McClain guessed the wrong area code, but when a woman answered the phone, he yelled into the phone for her not to hang up because he only got one phone call.
“I just got out of Vietnam,” he told her. “I’m ok, I’m fine. Don’t hang up. Would you get this message to my wife?”
The woman did as she was asked.
McClain and his wife laugh about this incident now, re- calling it as one of the funnier moments of his service.
“There’s a lot of funny stuff that goes on,” he said.
But even though she had to sit at home waiting for phone calls to find out if her husband was fine, McClain’s wife said she wasn’t scared during his overseas tours because she “knew he was doing what he wanted to do.”
McClain said fear didn’t re- ally exist for him either while he was serving overseas, even when machine gun bullets were literally flying straight between his legs. He just screamed obscenities at the enemy and shook his fist, he said laughing.
McClain said he would be lying if he said he wasn’t scared every day he was out on the battlefield, but he didn’t think about the fear because he was too busy thinking of other things.
“You’re thinking of other people,” he said. “You no lon- ger exist as a humanoid. You exist as the guy who makes sure everything works for ev- eryone else.”
McClain said his most in-
triguing assignment did not take place on the battlefield but instead working as secre- tary of the Military Armistice Commission in August 1976 to renegotiate the Korean Ar- mistice Agreement, which had not been renegotiated since the first time it was written in 1953.
Prior to signing the rene- gotiated terms, two of Mc- Clain’s men were killed in Korea’s demilitarized zone as a group of North Korean sol- diers wielding axes and metal pikes attacked U.S. and South Korean soldiers on Aug. 18, 1976.
McClain’s men had been trying to cut down a tree that was blocking the view of United Nations observers. The incident today is thus known as the Tree Trimming Inci- dent.
“We came as close to going to war as you could possibly come that day and to go with North Korea,” McClain said.
After that, McClain began negotiations with the North Koreans and Chinese while serving with the United Na- tions Command at Pan Mun Jon, Korea.
The meeting and signing of
SUBMITTED PHOTOGRAPH
Col. Terrance McClain
the renegotiated terms only took four minutes, McClain said, but in those four min- utes, he was able to make a statement and take the oppor- tunity to humiliate the North Korean general.
Prior to the signing, Mc- Clain went to the news media outlets and told them to have their cameras ready at the ex- act moment he was going to pass the papers to the North Korean general.
When McClain passed the papers, he dropped them so the general would instinctive- ly reach out with both hands to grab the papers, which is a sign of humility in the far east, McClain said.
“I had some smart guys working for me, and that was something we could do to hu- miliate them,” McClain said. “And we did.”
The photo was printed in every major newspaper in the far east.
“The world had the photo- graph we had hoped for,” Mc- Clain said. “They were furi- ous, absolutely furious.”
McClain’s career also in- cluded other unique assign- ments, such as Special Agent with the Counter Intelligence
Corps and Senior Army Rep- resentative to the United States Marine Corps Edu- cational Command. He also served on the Department of the Army Staff, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the De- fense Intelligence Agency in Washington, D.C.
The leadership experience McClain gained while serving 27 years in the Army is some- thing that he’s been able to put to good use after returning to civilian life, he said.
“In the military, you’re al- ways a teacher,” he said. “It’s a combination of teacher, fa- ther and grandfather all the way through.”
After he returned home, he worked as a substitute teacher for Adams County and also spent six or seven years work- ing at the Hoffman Home as a guest teacher.
“I thought to myself, what could be better than teach- ing history to a bunch of high school students,” he said laughing. “The answer to that is a root canal with no pain killer, the removal of an ap- pendage, several other things pop into mind.”
McClain also got involved in local politics with the Franklin Township Planning Commission, and he served on the Gettysburg Area School District school board for about six years with his wife. McClain and his wife were able to establish junior ROTC at Gettysburg High School.
“That is the one thing that has probably influenced posi- tively more kids than anything else,” he said. “It’s just a real honor to have been able to do that because it’s changed so many lives of so many kids.”
But McClain said his great- est honor will always be serv- ing with his fellow soldiers during his overseas tours.
“Working with soldiers is the pinnacle of anything,” he said. “It’s just the honor of be- ing able to work with young dedicated men in a hostile en- vironment, which brings out the best in them. It is just the greatest honor you have, and bringing them back is the key- note to that.”
“Profiles in service” is a Gettysburg Times feature that tells local veterans’ stories. Suggestions for future install- ments can be made to Abbey Zelko, azelko@gburgtimes. com or 717-253-9414.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Radio Operator

The helmet is an amazing find and the history behind it really makes it, I'd say based on all the information here that the helmet belonged to him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jumpmaster, CIB, Ranger, Silver Star, Bronze Star with V and OLCs, Purple Heart, he's a hardcore old-school infantry officer. Much respect and great helmet! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks guys.

close up of the painted BDQ insignia. Still not sure as stated by others as to why it’s on the helmet but it’s original in my opinion.

29E18113-873B-4DA0-AF91-EC82A80EE5D0.jpeg

DF28138E-D80E-4CAD-9FF5-CF1F6331615F.jpeg

4293CFAD-878A-4ACC-954F-A654AA2B4EFE.jpeg

592C140B-7B29-46A0-9389-F08B54DBC185.jpeg

650EDF4D-AE2C-4D12-B92F-CAA8EE9F4EF0.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He might have been attached to the unit for a hot second.
Or
He liked the look of it stateside.
I don’t have any original photos of a Arvn helmet painted like this.
Owen


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, kammo-man said:

He might have been attached to the unit for a hot second.
Or
He liked the look of it stateside.
I don’t have any original photos of a Arvn helmet painted like this.
Owen


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Owen and I and a few others have had some communication today. There is a new  twist to the story and it’s will be confirmed in the next few days. I did not see this one coming. 

 

Marty

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...