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Some of my WWII Naval Aviator flight helmets


bazelot
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3 hours ago, gparlin said:

Great looking helmet and setup.  It looks like the same mike setup as your Goldman helmet?  Another wonderful addition to your collection.  Thanks for posting, Gregg

 

Thanks Gregg. Yes, exactly the same as the Goldman helmet but in leather.

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Another great looking helmet and a wonderful addition to the "Flight Crew".  If you stop and think about, it, any pre-war military flight related item is rare, especially in the Navy.  During the '20's and '30's  there weren't a lot of pilots/aviators and flight crew when compared to wartime.  Additionally, in the Navy, most of the budget went towards the seagoing service.   

 

You have a top shelf collection and I really enjoy your thread and contributions to the flight helmet community or should I say nutcases.  Gregg

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On 2/21/2021 at 8:47 AM, gparlin said:

Another great looking helmet and a wonderful addition to the "Flight Crew".  If you stop and think about, it, any pre-war military flight related item is rare, especially in the Navy.  During the '20's and '30's  there weren't a lot of pilots/aviators and flight crew when compared to wartime.  Additionally, in the Navy, most of the budget went towards the seagoing service.   

 

You have a top shelf collection and I really enjoy your thread and contributions to the flight helmet community or should I say nutcases.  Gregg

Thanks Gregg, it means a lot coming from you. 

You are correct for the pre war setups. Navy pilots were in the hundreds pre war not the tens of thousands by war end 

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There are my other 2 pre war deck helmets. The one with the tc66 earcups is of different construction, the USN stamp on the chinstrap is way smaller and the chinstrap is sewn to the rest of the helmet instead of being of one piece.

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i found another one exactly the same as the TC66 setup above mentioned with the same USN on the eyelet strap instead of on the helmet itself. I am going to post pictures of it. Was that a transitional deck helmet  or a different manufacturer's specific design?

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On 2/19/2021 at 9:29 PM, bazelot said:

Another one I just got. Pre war / early war deck helmet with MKI goggles. Helmet is named but it is really hard to read. 

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Nice helmet Tom but can you tell us how you covered/repair this big rip on this helmet?

 

Cheers,

Jerry

 

image.png.2a7f494e60df9356da829b398b775811.png

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2 minutes ago, jerry_k said:

 

 

 

 

Nice helmet Tom but can you tell us how you covered/repair this big rip on this helmet?

 

Cheers,

Jerry

 

image.png.2a7f494e60df9356da829b398b775811.png

 

Nothing covered up, I simply stitched it from the inside which makes it almost impossible to see

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  • 1 month later...

Latest and greatest, mint MK IV goggles. They came in the box, never worn with the elastic strap not even attached and folded. Displayed on a VB-1 modified green deck helmet.

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On 3/29/2021 at 7:15 PM, 72psb said:

Those goggles redefine the meaning of MINT! 

 

Yes they do. I am glad I got them.

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This is a very interesting presentation on the battle of Guadalcanal and Vincent De Poix was interviewed for this bit as he was a fighter pilot with VF-6 at the time and he shot down his first plane at Guadalcanal. I own 3 of Vincent De Poix' helmets and I hope he was wearing one of them then.

 

 

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  • 3 months later...

Here's a great I ghelmt I picked with a grouping attributed to Lt. jg Bayard Webster. He flew F6F Hellcats with the second tour of VF-6 in 1943-1944 and a second tour of duty with VBF-85 in 1945. He flew many actions through the Solomon's to the Marshalls, Okinawa and strikes over Japan. In VF-6, he was squadron mates with the famed aces such as Butch O'Hare and Alex Vraciu, among others. The news article is a bit entertaining, could Webster be credited with the last Japanese plane shot down? I'm curious. The helmet is unique in that it had been modified for the boom mic, definitely while with VBF-85. It is salty and used.

 

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13 hours ago, dustin said:

Here's a great I ghelmt I picked with a grouping attributed to Lt. jg Bayard Webster. He flew F6F Hellcats with the second tour of VF-6 in 1943-1944 and a second tour of duty with VBF-85 in 1945. He flew many actions through the Solomon's to the Marshalls, Okinawa and strikes over Japan. In VF-6, he was squadron mates with the famed aces such as Butch O'Hare and Alex Vraciu, among others. The news article is a bit entertaining, could Webster be credited with the last Japanese plane shot down? I'm curious. The helmet is unique in that it had been modified for the boom mic, definitely while with VBF-85. It is salty and used.

 

304028240_webster2(3).JPG.202a88daa0739fceece1734907f272ca.JPG

1838565017_webster2(1).JPG.808e5fbf10238b194aa6e8fac0e39ffb.JPG

880097867_webster2(4).JPG.186e80f253b4fbe9abb8d1e11bbcb7d3.JPG

512600270_webster2(5).JPG.81530c69742fd6853582b0d74826ada0.JPG

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Dustin, that is one fantastic setup. I love it. It is unique, never seen that mod before. This one has all the modifications you can possibly think of. It is salty, just like I like them. Do you have pics of the rest of the stuff hat came with it? Thanks for sharing it with us.

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It's a great group of aerial combat worn gear. He liked the boom mic as his other helmet has it as well. Salty is nice, but it has dry rot: handle with care. That helmet was once white!! He clearly spent a lot of hours wearing it. It was brought to my attention that it may had been a carry over from his time with VF-6, the helmet you see in the pic was a later addition more directly related to VBF-85.  I would not be surprised if more of his stuff is floating around as I didn't obtain his medals or paper work and the sort. The nice thing is that he liked to put his name on everything. The log book is his but never filled out, his actual log book or books are likely floating around out there somewhere. The lot you see here all has B. Webster on it or B.W. There is "lots" of cool, but maybe my fave is the private purchase shoulder holster for the .38.

 

143928618_Webster(6).JPG.ca28e7afebc3555392a1fafb2035409e.JPG

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oh my... That is one fantastic grouping. everything is top notch there. you basically got everything, helmets, mask, goggles... Are you going to display them together? Congrats on the grouping, i will keep my eye out for that name and if anything comes up for sale i will let you know.

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