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Corpsman Helmet


Pro Libertate
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Have a few myself.... bought 20 shelss and over 500 liners a few months ago. Most all were salvage from Fort McCoy and had been in storage for over 15 years. In the lot there were maybe a half dozen fix bail, 40+ swivel bail fromt seam WW2 and the bulk were Vietnam era. Many of the older have lots of paint layers. Some are painted red,some yellow etc. VEry few had original straps and those that did have straps were the late 70s and 80s clip on nylon chin straps. 

 

One of 5 loads 

 

 

Liners1.jpg

Liners3.jpg

Liners2.jpg

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Pro Libertate

Holy mackerel! That's quite the load. I'm sorry... am I understanding you correctly that these were purchased from ASW, Inc.?

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2 minutes ago, Pro Libertate said:

Holy mackerel! That's quite the load. I'm sorry... am I understanding you correctly that these were purchased from ASW, Inc.?

 

 

No I bought them from a private owner who purchased them from salvage out of Fort McCoy many years ago. He had these in storage. 

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Pro Libertate

Very cool! I can't say I've seen those before. Of course, a couple of them appear to be missing their aggregate towards the peak, so they must be repro or re-enactment pieces. *sarcasm*

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5 minutes ago, Pro Libertate said:

Ah, I see. Well... you've got a nice little start-up there. Look out, J. Murray!

 

 

Josh dont have to worry 😉.

 

I move these when I can but a slow process. Lots of window lickers. Some of the better ones I have put camo covers on, added a liner and sold or traded them. Still have most all the front seam. Most of the rougher liners I was asking 15 a pop out of and guy walk away... but a guy oin ebay gets $29.99 for them and has sold over 300 liners form a surplus shop in California. Have several liner shelss with the removable suspension that are like new. I know a guy who has 500 of the suspensions but wont take the time to look in his wharehouse for them.

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Pro Libertate

I can imagine it's a slow process. I'm baffled by the behavior of people sometimes, man... I purchased an excellent WW2-era Westinghouse liner for $60 on Goodwill's website last week with hardly another bidder to contend with, and the following week someone paid $180 for a rough-as-heck Korean War-era one. It would seem as though most people don't know a deal when they see one. It's hard to understand.

 

Hang in there! I'm sure you'll sell them all off eventually.

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can be frustrating. I have seen an auction house run 2 batches of helmet through no better than these in lots of 4-6 per batch. Non were WW2. The last batch of 6 brought $580 plus the 18% buyer fee and the shipping...so over $600 

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9 hours ago, Pro Libertate said:

Nah, that's alright-- it was Blacksmith that overstepped. Oh well... nothing good lasts forever, I suppose.

 

Don't worry.  I really doubt serious M1 collector's are going to be rushing to buy their crates full of Army Surplus shells out from under you.  

 

The new pics clearly show that that edge wear is just from stacking surplus helmets.  

 

It's nice to think that the medic roundels are Vietnam era...worn under a cover.  What's your take on the serious dome wear then?  Almost 100% paint loss.  No rust?  I am conflicted over the lack of patina on the helmet.  Fresh steel.  No rust.  Lots of paint loss.  And just a general lack of patina.  If worn under a cover I would not expect this.  Did you clean this helmet?  

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2 hours ago, bigschuss said:

Don't worry.  I really doubt serious M1 collector's are going to be rushing to buy their crates full of Army Surplus shells out from under you...

 

And this is the truth! But, the cloak and dagger on this thread has been fun as well.

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2 hours ago, Bugme said:

 

And this is the truth! But, the cloak and dagger on this thread has been fun as well.

I'm not sure how much of an Ian Fleming thriller it was my friend.  

 

It took me literally less than 60 seconds of Google-Fu to find the source (and it was the very first search return).

 

They actually have some really good deals:  Army Surplus Warehouse

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Blacksmith said:

I'm not sure how much of an Ian Fleming thriller it was my friend....

Lol, my statement was totally tongue in cheek. A surplus store with a website is not exactly a state secret. This is... 😀

post-1726-1208469317.jpg

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Pro Libertate
5 hours ago, bigschuss said:

 

Don't worry.  I really doubt serious M1 collector's are going to be rushing to buy their crates full of Army Surplus shells out from under you.  

 

It's nice to think that the medic roundels are Vietnam era...worn under a cover.  What's your take on the serious dome wear then?  Almost 100% paint loss.  No rust?  I am conflicted over the lack of patina on the helmet.  Fresh steel.  No rust.  Lots of paint loss.  And just a general lack of patina.  If worn under a cover I would not expect this.  Did you clean this helmet?  

 

As I've already stated, I'm hardly concerned with folks "buying their crates full of Army Surplus shells out from under me". I am concerned with the possibility of buyers contacting the company and requesting unique and unusual helmets--as I have--and thus depleting what I'm sure is a dwindling store of such helmets.

 

Again, as has already been mentioned, the subsequent layers of paint seem to be incompatible, prompting flaking; it's not the first time I've seen it. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that this helmet was stacked beneath other helmets (relatively protected from damp conditions and high humidity), and that the flaking took place during that time. Of course, this I'm just theorizing here.

 

I'm sorry, but I don't think your characterization of the helmet as "lacking patina" is correct. There's plenty of oxidation and scattered rust throughout. I own a World War II lid (photos below) that exhibits similar and substantial paint wear... does the fact it's not all rusted to the point of disintegrating indicate it's a reproduction or reenactment piece? I hardly think so. We see different levels of wear and decay based upon innumerable factors and circumstances surrounding a helmet's storage.

 

20211203_095032.jpg.f215cf38e85ee8651df1ae508eb1df72.jpg

20211203_095010.jpg.17a22c64c42100fb79c65c27335ecd59.jpg

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2 hours ago, Blacksmith said:

I'm not sure how much of an Ian Fleming thriller it was my friend.  

 

It took me literally less than 60 seconds of Google-Fu to find the source (and it was the very first search return).

 

They actually have some really good deals:  Army Surplus Warehouse

 

 

 

 

 

gotta get them gerry can gaskets. 

 

NIce to see a real surplus store and not a hipster camping store.

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Pro Libertate
2 hours ago, Blacksmith said:

It took me literally less than 60 seconds of Google-Fu to find the source (and it was the very first search return).

 

I suspect it wouldn't have been quite so easy had I not shared my location (my bad). Sure took me long enough to find them. But thanks for publicly posting the URL out of spite... that was really cool of you-- not. 

 

In the future maybe I won't divulge any information whatsoever regarding where I got my purchase, considering how cutthroat and vengeful some individuals appear to be. That was so low-down and cheap I simply didn't expect it.

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Some of these helmets see more actual combat here on the forum than they ever did in real life.

 

:-)

 

 

It looks like a 1960's painted helmet. The white paint is not old enough to have yellowed.

Looks like a professional job. Could have been used could have been turned into a movie prop?

Some units sanded theirs down and removed the texture. Some MP units did that.

If they could only talk. What stories they could tell.

In the 1980's, I never saw a helmet worn with out either a mitchell cover here and there at first and then woodland.

Except in basic. I joined November 1981. Helmets were always always worn with a cover.

No need to paint medic symbols on them. Im guessing late late 50's or early 1960's.

But there is no earthly way to tell.

And yea it looks like someone sanded over the heat stamp to expose it.

It ruins the value for a serious M1 collector.

There was a guy on ebay selling a bunch of helmets he picked up from an old armory but he

sanded em down! Why? He said he was trying to clean them up. some front seam fixed bales too.

Just ruined them.

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1 hour ago, Pro Libertate said:

 

I suspect it wouldn't have been quite so easy had I not shared my location (my bad). Sure took me long enough to find them. But thanks for publicly posting the URL out of spite... that was really cool of you-- not. 

 

In the future maybe I won't divulge any information whatsoever regarding where I got my purchase, considering how cutthroat and vengeful some individuals appear to be. That was so low-down and cheap I simply didn't expect it.

 

My apologies, the few glimpses I get of the forum is on a teeny phone screen, and I usually have seconds to spend - so I surely miss a lot of the context.  I guess I should slow down and soak it in more...

 

I can assure you, my posting the URL was not to spite anyone, but rather in response to fellow members voicing interest.

 

To put your mind at ease, location honestly has zero to do with it.  I used the keywords "army surplus helmets", scrolled past the map and advertisements (and a blue motorcycle helmet), and the below photo is literally the first Army helmet link.  

 

We are a community, which - defined in summary - is a fellowship based on common interests.  There is way more military stuff than there are collectors to collect it.  If somebody gets a deal on a nice helmet, good for them, as there will be another one right behind it.

 

Be well.

 

Helmet - Copy.PNG

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Pro Libertate
31 minutes ago, The Rooster said:

Some of these helmets see more actual combat here on the forum than they ever did in real life.

 

Ha! Ain't that the truth! I welcome debate, but I get frustrated by the fact that folks often make wild assertions regarding the authenticity of an item (either yea or nay) and don't expound on how they came to that conclusion-- they add nothing to the discussion and bring nothing to the table. Of course, if you challenge their claims at all, you're being an unreasonable and argumentative jerk.

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