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55/p elastic strap dual visor


phantomfixer
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Picked this up today 

dual visor assembly snapped together

has leather 3 on left and right side with leather skull and cross bones under the visors

leather earcups withe TPL liner

mask is dated 89 90 91

helmet is early 90s, no integrated nape strap mod..

I thought the owner was a Dale Earhart fan and maybe that’s the case or a unit? 3 or 33, the USAF wasn’t much into helmet art.. so odd

D914B1F8-7D9A-4E98-BAFF-A5BF8D3BCBC5.jpeg

4BC04665-2498-4B8F-9CD4-1D31F2B3B424.jpeg

A5A5935B-D7BE-4DE7-A77B-9633F9CEBC44.jpeg

BFB3E856-CCA6-4C43-ADB7-2FA10CBED183.jpeg

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Not sure on the artwork, Id say non military done but those Piggy Back visors are really only used in AETC in UPT.  Most people hate them so Ive ended up with them when I had friends finish UPT.   I saw a custom one done once to have it setup with a neutral grey and a yellow high contrast visor which I thought was cool.  Are those visors cut for that 12P mask or a later 20P cut?

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7 hours ago, mohawkALSE said:

Not sure on the artwork, Id say non military done but those Piggy Back visors are really only used in AETC in UPT.  Most people hate them so Ive ended up with them when I had friends finish UPT.   I saw a custom one done once to have it setup with a neutral grey and a yellow high contrast visor which I thought was cool.  Are those visors cut for that 12P mask or a later 20P cut?

based on the age, most likely the 12/P but will check...my first thought on the leather 3's was non military too, but the helmet looks untouched post service, so hard to say either way...

 

cool to learn that the visor set up was primarily AETC, just read where the 33rd Flying training squadron was active from 1990-1992, then reactivated in 98...

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Regardless of the intriguing shell art you both pointed out, it is a very good-looking helmet set !

Love the -55/P with such dual-visors.

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The look of it to me says 90s-early 2000s warbird/air racing where some people used surplus stuff.  Could be the same time frame UPT helmet and someone added the art after no longer using the helmet.  I have a bunch of friends who pretty much only wore headsets after or went rotary wing after UPT so their 55P from there sat on a shelf.  Also others just got a whole new helmet issued at their first assignments so again became a desk piece.  The earlier 55 helmets were used for a while til they were dried up or no longer serviceable.  Same goes for the masks, heck Ive even seen some all green 12P mask in the 2000s still trucking on in airlift units.

 

My buddy who flies C-17s won a custom made visor cover just before he completed UPT, so to display it he put it on his set of piggy back visors from UPT since they are rarely used down the road after UPT.  Those visors and that training squadron visor cover have been sitting on his book shelf since 2008.   He was pissed when his original issue helmet from UPT which he took to his first assignment in the 17 was no longer serviceable, they wouldn't let him keep it.  He still had the same 12P mask from UPT for a long time til they decided C-17 crews don't need to have masks with their helmets anymore in the jet.  Everyone else I know that was issued a 12 complained it didn't fit right so they ended up getting the 20A/P. 

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