71st Airborne Brigade Helmet

[Nickman983]

Recently picked up this example of a 71st Airborne Brigade marked helmet after seeing a thread or two on them years ago. The 71st was part of the 36th ID between 1968 and 1973 as a national guard unit.

 

While it likely started out life as a post war M1C at some point the whole helmet was overpainted and converted to an infantry helmet. Over the last week I've been working on uncovering the markings and finally got it to a good enough point last night. Some parts of the markings came out very well while others were more finicky. There were a couple areas in particular on the right side of the helmet where the overpaint was very thick and the white was very thin and flakey which forced me to stop. All things considered I think it came out fairly well, though I might go back and try to clean up some more of the overpaint if I can figure out a good way to strip very specific spots without working the already exposed paint around the splotchy overpaint.

 

Here is the overview and the before pics

 

 

[Nickman983]

Progress and end result

[manayunkman]

You’ve got patience that’s for sure.

 

The tape marks are nice to see.

 

I like the way it is now.

[Nickman983]

1 hour ago, manayunkman said:

You’ve got patience that’s for sure.

 

The tape marks are nice to see.

 

I like the way it is now.

 

Thank you, I think it took me around 15 hours in total to get it to where it's at. I pretty much worked on the helmet after work and listened to that night's baseball game rather than watching the game on TV like normal so it wasn't too bad all in all.

 

I liked the tape markings as well, I think most of the other examples that have been posted here also have them so it's cool to see. Unfortunately mine lacked a matching liner.

 

I don't think I'll do any more removal on the overpaint at this point. I've got a period correct airborne liner coming in the mail tomorrow to pair with the shell though. Besides that, I might swap out the standard infantry chinstraps with crimp on M1C chinstraps if I can find NOS/used ones but I've had a really hard time finding a source for those thus far so I may just leave it.

[elh1311]

I always thought those 71st helmets were cool. You did a good job with it. 

[Nickman983]

31 minutes ago, elh1311 said:

I always thought those 71st helmets were cool. You did a good job with it. 

Thank you! I'm in the same boat, something about these as well as the KW era marked shells are just really neat.

 

One thing I find interesting though is that the two others I've seen posted here have had the upper left quadrant of the diamond painted orange vs mine in the lower right. I'm sure it's to differentiate between battalions but it would be nice to get confirmation. I found an archived video on the Texas national guard focusing on the 71st and the paratrooper training program. The only painted helmet I saw though was that of General Thomas Blackwell.

[sgtdorango]

Great job i love these too and a few years ago i picked up one of their patched shirts, a rare bird👍🏻....mike

[sgtdorango]

[elh1311]

54 minutes ago, sgtdorango said:

The tape residue is killer 

[Nickman983]

2 hours ago, sgtdorango said:

Great job i love these too and a few years ago i picked up one of their patched shirts, a rare bird👍🏻....mike

Thanks Mike, I knew this one would be your speed. Love your examples you posted, especially with that 71st shirt. Can't be many of those floating around.

 

Very happy to have found one of these, it brings my modest AB collection to 3 helmets now. I'm hoping to eventually add an KW 11th AB example at some point down the road if I can find one.

[elh1311]

11 hours ago, Nickman983 said:

Thanks Mike, I knew this one would be your speed. Love your examples you posted, especially with that 71st shirt. Can't be many of those floating around.

 

Very happy to have found one of these, it brings my modest AB collection to 3 helmets now. I'm hoping to eventually add an KW 11th AB example at some point down the road if I can find one.

What method/substance did you use to remove the paint? 

[Nickman983]

I used q-tips and goof off to remove the repaint. Basically I would lightly soak the q-tip and start rubbing in a circular motion on the area I was working on. Once the end I was using was covered in paint and not doing much any more I'd take a slightly damp towel and wipe off the area I was working on to remove any excess goof off and then lightly dab it dry before starting this process over. The amount of pressure I was using would depend on how thick the overpaint was, as soon as it started to wear off I eased off on adding much pressure with the q-tip to lessen the chances of burning through the paint I was trying to uncover.

 

The name of the game with these things though is patience and knowing when to leave well enough alone.

[MasonK]

Excellent work uncovering the markings! Takes a lot of patience and time, but definitely paid off. Great looking lid. 

 

I was under the impression the location odd colored mark denoted the battalion, similar to WWII marked AB lids?

 

Always love seeing Mike's examples. Of course his have to be blue, and a different orientation, confusing the meaning of the marks even further. 😉That shirt is killer, by the way!

 

Throwing out my example, since everyone else is sharing 😁

 

 

[gitana]

Has there been any definitive identification of these various markings? 

Are they all 71st or 36th Airborne Brigade (Texas NG)? 

 

I have several as well.. 

[Nickman983]

3 hours ago, gitana said:

Has there been any definitive identification of these various markings? 

Are they all 71st or 36th Airborne Brigade (Texas NG)? 

 

I have several as well.. 

A few is an understatement!

 

There's a period photo of one of the larger square markings posted in this thread

 

 

 

I haven't personally seen any period photos of the diamond or the circle yet.

[sgtdorango]

Theres very little known about these and very few period photos also most info is speculation......mike

[sgtdorango]

Heres the few period photos that i know of...mike

[snake36bravo]

If you can find a year book that might help with solving the mystery. I know from time they appear. A real prize for historians and researchers alike when they show up. 

[sgtdorango]

2 hours ago, snake36bravo said:

If you can find a year book that might help with solving the mystery. I know from time they appear. A real prize for historians and researchers alike when they show up. 

I would love to find one!..i bet it would solve alot of mysteries👍🏻.....mike

[Nickman983]

Well, I ended up making some progress on solving this mystery unintentionally tonight. I had signed up for a newspapers free trial to do some research on a named helmet I ended up buying tonight and after clipping the articles I wanted for that helmet I decided to do a search for the 71st. While photos online might be hard to come by, period photos in Texas newspapers are a plenty!

 

This is going to be a bit of a long set of posts. I'm going to start with the least interesting/relevant and finish with the most interesting/relevant. I've tried to include subtitles where they provide some more information and I'll provide information on where and when these images where published.

 

Up first is a photo posted in the Irving Daily on 05/11/1972. The contrast is blown out but you can catch a glimpse of some sort of square marking on his helmet.

[Nickman983]

Up next is a set of photos of the 71st being visited by the Mayor of Dallas. These were posted in the Corsicana Daily on 6/7/1973

 

Looks like a possible diamond marking on the upper left hand picture. Col. Jake Dennis has some sort of marking applied to his helmet. Most interesting about these photos is the Clear shot of his marked uniform

 

[Nickman983]

Another set of photos from the Corsicana Daily, this time from 5/28/1972 

 

 

Closer photo. I can't make out the marking on helmet on the right clearly, the one on the left looks to be the red square/white square style of marking.

 

[Nickman983]

Another set of markings that aren't super clear to make out from the scanned newspapers. I'm not sure if these are the diamond style or the square style. These were posted in the Austin American on 8/13/1971

[Nickman983]

And now, for the diamond markings in use

 

These were again posted by the Austin American but on 8/1/1971

 

Closeups of the two pictures 

The paratrooper on the right of the above photo seems to be wearing the same style of marking as on my helmet. Others are harder to tell where the painted section of the white diamond is.

 

[Nickman983]

The Austin American again posted photos of the 71st, this time on 7/28/1970. These very clearly show the diamond style markings in use

 

 

T-Patch is also visible on the uniform of the individual on the right.