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P1B-P4A helmet signed Capt. McGee


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Good afternoon,

 

I bought a US Air Force flight helmet, it is signed Capt. McGee. I was wondering if it was possible that the helmet once belonged to General Charles McGee (Tuskegee Airman). I shot an email to USAF museum, haven't received a reply yet. I'm not even sure if the style would match the helmets they used to fly then, as I don't know much about these. If anyone has any input, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you

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can't help with the name, unless his name was Bobbie....

anyway the mod tag is pretty cool..

nice helmet, hope it pans out for you

 

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Fantastic helmet! Congratulations! Even if it is not related to the General, that is a tough find with everything intact, especially the tags.

 

On a side note, try some Lexol leather cleaner and conditioner on the suspension assembly leather. You can find it at a good price in the auto care section at Walmart. It has worked very well for me.

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Thank you, I'll try that. It does look a bit rough on the inside. I guess the whole thing looks pretty fragile, so I didn't mess with it too much.

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That is one fine named example ! Everything seems to be present, with a gorgeous patina and a stylish writing.


According to what the label says, it's a P-1B shell which was retrofitted to the P-4A standard (with the central rubber knob + visor track, and comm), the USAF decal's central position partially masked by the external visor addition is a valuable confirmation (brand new P-4s had two smaller decals on the sides, behind the visor's tilting mechanism).

The P-4A standard being introduced in 1957 or so, it's safe to say your set was used as it is in the late 50's.

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As stated, great helmet. I would be investigating his rank during the time frame of the use of this helmet. Capt? That is a lower ranking officer... 

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On 1/14/2021 at 7:49 PM, horridohutch said:

As stated, great helmet. I would be investigating his rank during the time frame of the use of this helmet. Capt? That is a lower ranking officer... 

Great idea, thank you. I looked on Wikipedia and it looks like he was a captain in 1944 and in late 50s he was a lieutenant colonel. I guess it answers my question. Thanks again

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On 1/14/2021 at 3:46 PM, Vark_07 said:

That is one fine named example ! Everything seems to be present, with a gorgeous patina and a stylish writing.


According to what the label says, it's a P-1B shell which was retrofitted to the P-4A standard (with the central rubber knob + visor track, and comm), the USAF decal's central position partially masked by the external visor addition is a valuable confirmation (brand new P-4s had two smaller decals on the sides, behind the visor's tilting mechanism).

The P-4A standard being introduced in 1957 or so, it's safe to say your set was used as it is in the late 50's.

I own numerous P4s. Every one with the small Hap Arnold wing decal only has one on the wearers left side. Just for info. 

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Good to know, 72psb, thanks for correcting.


Aside from the numerous web examples stored on my hard drive archives with the left side decal, I actually had one with a decal on the right so I assumed these decals used to be placed on both sides. Then it occured to me, when I looked back at this picture after reading your post, that the whole helmet had been reversed (by mirror effect - don't know why, though, but it was clearly misleading).

So I indeed take this "two smaller decals" statement back, sorry about the wrong info I gave 😅.

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