Extremely salty graffitied and named Nam’ helmet. Possibly ID’d!

[Gear Fanatic]

Hey all, a friend of mine recently went on a road trip to Oklahoma and New Mexico to see a bunch of family and brought back this INSANE helmet that he said belonged to one of his relatives. He said he found it in the garage with a box of other stuff, it was missing a liner and the cover was stuffed in the honey rolled up and tied off with the helmet band. He sent pics, and the rest is history. Now I have the helmet on hand and J’m super excited at the potential of research. The helmet itself is a 1945 produced McCord (I think) still with the original ww2 paint and very degraded curling which you can see poking through. It’s missing one of its bales which is annoying and has no chinstraps. The Mitchell cover is EXTREMELY salty with tears all through the brim and it’s nearly ripped in half, the seam down the middle is also ripping. There is also some graffiti on it which is super cool, not sure what it is, I doubt it’s months in country, or something of that sort, but probably something else. Because if it was months he would have almost 4 years which is extremely unlikely. The helmet band which is named “Harjo” is in fairly decent condition, and the name has clearly been on there for a hot minute. I feel the name will be pretty much say to r search, as I know he lived in either OK or NM, and I know he is either a Shawnee or Creek Indian since those are the tribes my friend is apart of. Either way, I’m super excited to be the caretaker of this helmet as this is my first Vietnam helmet! Thanks for looking.

 

PS the liner is a post war Euro clone I put in it to keep the cover on. Not apart of the helmet.

[Gear Fanatic]

[Gear Fanatic]

Also, I messed up on the tribe names, it wasn’t Shawnee, it was Navajo and Cteek Indians, or Muscogee Indians technically. I feel that would be relatively easy to narrow down, but who knows.

[Gear Fanatic]

Anyone have any thoughts? Maybe I posted this in the wrong place? Maybe recent finds might have been a. Better section…

[agate hunter]

Cover could have been in Vietnam, what is on the back of it?

[Gear Fanatic]

I have no clue, it’s just a bunch of tick markes in the shape of triangles.

[Gear Fanatic]

To me there is no doubt this helmet was worn in country, it is way to salty to have not been.

[644td]

Do you have any information on your friends relative. Salty doesn’t translate to in country it could be a NG cover. More information on the vet is key. 

Covers brought home more common than a helmet and cover. 
Helmet and cover brought home from the guard unit more common. 
Do you have close up pictures of the markings on the back of the cover?

Its alway exciting to find a marked cover

 

Marty

[The Rooster]

28 minutes ago, Gear Fanatic said:

To me there is no doubt this helmet was worn in country, it is way to salty to have not been.

?

Harjo

 

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Harjo

Harjo is a surname, derived from the Muscogee war title Hadcho or Hadjo, meaning "so brave as to seem crazy", "brave beyond discretion", "foolhardy", ...

 

Like 644td said... wouldnt your friend know who the relative is or was?

And their service record? Meaning wouldnt they know if their relative was in Vietnam?

And their relatives name? Right now as it stands... you have sort of an ID'd headband.

You need more info to call it used in Vietnam.

 

Martys comment....

"Helmet and cover brought home from the guard unit more common. "

I would agree.

In fact, I think back in the day, when you mustered out of the Guard,

you were allowed to keep your TA-50 gear which includes the helmet.

 

[Gear Fanatic]

Ok, a little more context…

 

So as some of you may know, Native American families are pretty large when it comes to “relatives” I was just talking to him now and he said he found it in the house of his aunt but that house has just been passed down over 3 generations at least and rented by distant cousins of the family. He said that house is sort of a “family house” as there kinda on a small family compound where he found this one exactly. So the house has switched hands many times He said he doesn’t know who exactly it belonged to, and that he’ll ask them. He said it’s also hard to understand them, because most of them don’t speak very good English and either speak broken Spanish or alonguiquin which is there native language. So to be honest this is going to be VERY hard to figure out. I’ll keep working with him, and I’ll keep ya’ll posted.

 

hopefully this helped to some extent. In it’s own, what do you guys think of the helmet?

[The Rooster]

36 minutes ago, Gear Fanatic said:

To me there is no doubt this helmet was worn in country, it is way to salty to have not been.

Honestly.... It looks in too good of shape to have been worn in country..Not by Infantry anyway....

The ones Ive seen that are deemed authentic are super faded,,, torn and oil spattered. dirty as well.

[Gear Fanatic]

The pictures don’t do it justice, it’s nearly ripped in half and it super faded and soiled, there’s holes all over it to, I’ll try to get better pictures of the cover alone to prove it.

[Gear Fanatic]

Brown side is also pretty rusted, and it’s stained throughout.

[Marshallj]

Looks like poor storage and the elements contributed to the demise of that cover.

[Gear Fanatic]

[Gear Fanatic]

The giant tears around the rim could not have been done by bad storage as when the helmet was found the cover was rolled up with the band inside and under the helmet, away from the elements.

[Gear Fanatic]

For example here’s a comparison of the outside used sort of the helmet and the flaps that still retain most of there color.

[Gear Fanatic]

To me this is definetly an in country worn helmet if I’ve ever seen one, the cover is super worn and faded, there are tears basically all throughout the brim to the point where it’s basically ripped in half, there are small little pebble size holes all throughout the cover, and especially in the top, the top is a whiteish grey khaki kinda of color from how many times it’s been late down, if ya’ll don’t think this is genuine wear, I don’t know what is…

 

Also, I hope this all comes across in a respectful manner, Not trying to argue or cause problems, but I am very confident in this helmet.

[644td]

1 hour ago, The Rooster said:

Honestly.... It looks in too good of shape to have been worn in country..Not by Infantry anyway....

The ones Ive seen that are deemed authentic are super faded,,, torn and oil spattered. dirty as well.

Yes, combat covers were faded and torn and at times replaced within a few months. But I have multiple named in country covers in various conditions based on MOS and one of them that I have was the guys second cover.

 

Marty

[john k]

So you are concluding that "genuine wear" equates to "definetly an in country worn helmet"  ?

 

It's hard not to push back on such assumptions.

 

 

[Gear Fanatic]

3 minutes ago, john k said:

So you are concluding that "genuine wear" equates to "definetly an in country worn helmet"  ?

 

It's hard not to push back on such assumptions.

 

 

Fair point, but there is also graffiti,

I don’t know how else it would have gotten this kind of wear? What is another way it could have gotten that. I know it’s not storage for sure. Because the cover was hidden In a cardboard box, under a helmet. I just don’t see how else it could look like this? Please if anyone has any insight into another option, please correct and educate. I’m happy to listen and learn more 👍

[The Rooster]

26 minutes ago, Gear Fanatic said:

Fair point, but there is also graffiti,

I don’t know how else it would have gotten this kind of wear? What is another way it could have gotten that. I know it’s not storage for sure. Because the cover was hidden In a cardboard box, under a helmet. I just don’t see how else it could look like this? Please if anyone has any insight into another option, please correct and educate. I’m happy to listen and learn more 👍

Without proof, provenance, you have a helmet, a cover and a band with a name on it you dont know who it is.

How do you know the relative was not stationed in Germany? Italy? Korea or any of the numerous posts across the globe?

Or state side... In the guard or reserves?

You have an ID'd headband which you dont know who the name belongs to or anything about them.

? You would be better off finding out what you can thats verifiable before declaring it anything other than what it is.

I was in the guard... different time frame.. My helmet I wore for 4 years part time and took it home.

The cover on it was and is beat and I drew on it.

I know this because its my helmet.

You have a green mitchell covered question mark.

 band with a name and right now, very little else.

Wait til your friend gets back to you.

My two cents.

 

 

[Gear Fanatic]

Understood, I’ll wait to hear more, I’ll circle back In a week or so. Thanks all 👍

[P-59A]

19 minutes ago, Gear Fanatic said:

Understood, I’ll wait to hear more, I’ll circle back In a week or so. Thanks all 👍

Gear, Everyone has made comments and observations I agree with 100%. Everyone has nicely tried to nudge you in a direction that you would not look at or walk towards until now. Rooster nailed it on the head in his open. Its no different than that "Para Marine helmet". No proof, only conjecture made out of thin air. You have been on this site long enough to have learned something. Show what you have learned before you present something as a definitive example. Right now all you are showing is a lack of learning or understanding of what you are looking at. Up your game.  I am not chastising you, I am challenging you.

[Gear Fanatic]

No, your right,and I appreciate you calling it out.

I really just got excited… 

and I am a little disappointed in myself now that I look the topic over. The helmet is like you said, just a helmet. As long as there’s no proof or provenance than it’s just a helmet. I’m also fairly new to Nam’ helmets as this is my first one, but I have handled plenty of salty ID’d USMC helmets with covers and a few nice Nam’ helmet that were also ID’d and less destroyed. So I jumped to conclusions and immediately (foolishly)

assumed it as a combat helmet. I still have confidence in this helmet and I’ll keep you posted on the info I get from the family.