USN M1 helmet with yellow band?

[jimdog]

Hello, I purchased this M1 helmet and I was wondering if anyone here could explain the meaning of the painted yellow band? 

It's a rear seam McCord, the heat stamp starts with 11, but the next two digits are lightly stamped and are not legible, followed by A.

I believe this was made during November-December 1944. It's possible this saw service in the final months of WWII or in the Korean War.

The liner is a WWII made Firestone and it's painted light blue.

Does anyone know the purpose of the yellow identification band?

I have some screenshots from old footage of Navy personnel on some type of amphibious craft, they are all wearing very similar helmets.

I'm not sure if the bands are yellow or white?

Any help is appreciated, thanks.

[sigsaye]

1 hour ago, jimdog said:

Hello, I purchased this M1 helmet and I was wondering if anyone here could explain the meaning of the painted yellow band? 

It's a rear seam McCord, the heat stamp starts with 11, but the next two digits are lightly stamped and are not legible, followed by A.

I believe this was made during November-December 1944. It's possible this saw service in the final months of WWII or in the Korean War.

The liner is a WWII made Firestone and it's painted light blue.

Does anyone know the purpose of the yellow identification band?

I have some screenshots from old footage of Navy personnel on some type of amphibious craft, they are all wearing very similar helmets.

I'm not sure if the bands are yellow or white?

Any help is appreciated, thanks.

Those bands you are seeing in the photo are gray, for Normandy. Most Navy helmet markings are made up locally, so almost impossible to determine what they are for. Amphibious ships did color code them with Red, white, blue, yellow, green or black, for the different debarkation stations. But, who knows. 

[jimdog]

17 minutes ago, sigsaye said:

Those bands you are seeing in the photo are gray, for Normandy. Most Navy helmet markings are made up locally, so almost impossible to determine what they are for. Amphibious ships did color code them with Red, white, blue, yellow, green or black, for the different debarkation stations. But, who knows. 

Thanks for the info.

So this helmet was likely used by someone on some type of amphibious craft? 

[sigsaye]

58 minutes ago, jimdog said:

Thanks for the info.

So this helmet was likely used by someone on some type of amphibious craft? 

 

58 minutes ago, jimdog said:

Thanks for the info.

So this helmet was likely used by someone on some type of amphibious craft? 

Not an assault boat, all I’m saying is that the helmets of the Sailors working at the Debark Stations on an Amphibious ship, often had their helmets marked in some manner with the color code for that station. All stations were color coded. Then again, it could be something entirely different. Navy helmets got markings based on the needs of the ship. 

[Paddyd00]

I saw this one for sale. Has a cool look. No idea what exactly its function would have been. Doesn’t seem like much of a

patina to this one though was my observation. Maybe cleaned. Probably post war painted. In nice condition. 
 

seller on eBay called it a security guard helmet. Whatever that means. 

 

nice set 

 

Z

[jimdog]

3 minutes ago, Paddyd00 said:

I saw this one for sale. Has a cool look. No idea what exactly its function would have been. Doesn’t seem like much of a

patina to this one though was my observation. Maybe cleaned. Probably post war painted. In nice condition. 
 

seller on eBay called it a security guard helmet. Whatever that means. 

 

nice set 

 

Z

Yes, I'm not sure exactly what the purpose of the yellow band is either, sigsaye said it could have been for sailors working at debarkation stations.

I guess we will never know exactly, it's not likely a security guard helmet like the seller thinks.

I don't think it was cleaned or at least not recently, it's very dusty.

I'm not sure what period the paint job is from, but I do believe it is an original US Navy paint job.

[Paddyd00]

Def will look good on shelf!

Z

[jimdog]

10 minutes ago, Paddyd00 said:

Def will look good on shelf!

Z

Thanks, it's unique and that's what I like about it 

[Mr.Jerry]

I thought the yellow edged ones were harbor master related- might be worth a quick search.

[sigsaye]

17 hours ago, Mr.Jerry said:

I thought the yellow edged ones were harbor master related- might be worth a quick search.

Now that you mention it, yeah, they were like Load Masters, guys that controlled traffic in the ports of embarkation. Weren’t there photos of those on this forum somewhere?

[kfields]

Just a thought but I wonder if the yellow relates to some sort of use by training cadre on rifle ranges, that sort of thing. Looking at my old Basic Training yearbook and post cards I picked up at Ft Polk in 1975, I see lots of yellow on helmets & helmet liners used by the cadre on the different ranges