USN APH-6D / Named Custom

[Wayward Son]

This Navy APH-6D came out of an Ohio estate sale a few years ago. I found the aviator's last name (Kimball), initials and SSN in and on the helmet. After some research, I found that Jackson Geoffrey Kimball (born 1949) from Ohio, was in the USNA (Annapolis) Class of 1971. He achieved the rank of LT JG in 12/72 and LT in 7/75. I have been unable to determine his assignments or how this helmet is attributed to his military career at this time. I received the helmet in a terrific used condition with only one of the fragile earcup spacers needing replacement.

Enjoy.

[hink441]

Nice helmet. Looks like the silhouette of an A-3 Skywarrior in my opinion. 
 

Chris

[Vark_07]

Awesome-looking APH-6, neat tape job. The boom mic set and the com cable management are an interesting customization.

Isn't it a C-model though ? D's were single-visor, whereas C's featured dual-visors (even if it's not impossible seeing D models customized with ramshorn housings).

 

Back to the tape job, the stylised initials of the aviator on the back and the plane silhouettes over 2 Warsaw Pact countries' flags are really cool assets !

 

If the Skywarrior guess is correct -and I would think so because the silhouette taped on the sides indeed looks A-3 shaped to me as well, so does the presence of a boom mic attached to the helmet for this type of plane- I wouldn't be surprised if this airman flew the EA-3B, since this ELINT version of the Skywarrior was used by Fleet Air Reconnaissance VQ-1 "World Watchers" and VQ-2 "Sandeman" squadrons to perform US CVNs' electronic intelligence duties against the Warsaw Pact's countries (other VQ- squadrons didn't use the Skywarrior).

I really like that hypothesis, because the presence of this A-3 looking silhouette taped over the Russian and Polish flags would make perfect sense for an EA-3B aviator deployed aboard a CVN in the North Sea / Baltic (I've read that VQ-2 even had ground-based EA-3Bs in UK / Greece / Germany and Italy) for ELINT gathering off the coasts (or borders) of these countries, say in the mid 70's to mid 80's time span considering the APH-6C/D period of use in the US Navy.

 

Cool Navy helmet, with a great potential Cold War value attached to it !

-Gauthier