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USMC Helicopter Helmet HMX-1


boxerdogi
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I bought this helmet and mask off Ebay a while back. It was a Buy It Now with one bad picture. I had planned to use it for parts. When it arrived the seller had added the knee board. The helmet, mask, and knee board are all named to the same pilot! I contacted the seller and he told me he got the set from the widow, and that the pilot was in the Marines, and flew helicopters. After his time in Vietnam he flew helicopters for the President with HMX-1. He died in 1989. His name was Major Marion J. Daane. Needless to say...I don't have the heart to part it out now. I was hoping some of you forum members might be able to add some information or thoughts. Many thanks...Tom.

post-3075-1294346747.jpg

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I'm not an expert but I don't think I have ever seen an O2 mask on a helo helmet. But if you are flying the President in HMX-1, nothing is standard.

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The mask is pretty clean and minty. I would quess it is from his flight training and most likely never used after that. I was told there was a time when alot of Marines started in jets, and were then shifted into helicopters.

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He joined the Corps in 1942 and got his commission in 1945. Here his entry in the 1965 Navy/Marine officers register:

 

deane65.jpg

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Interesting Group.

 

During Vietnam there were a lot of transitions from Fixed wing platforms to rotary wing. It is very plausable that he kept his O2 Mask.

 

Another posibility is that he went to the training command and flew T-28 training aircraft. The current Primary instructors flying the T-34C and I think the New version of the T-6 Texan fly with a boom mike, but have an O2 mask as well for Higher altitude flying (Above 10,000 ft AGL).

 

Currently white side HMX-1 Pilots don't fly with Helmets, they use headsets. there are other pilots at HMX that don't fly the president and they do expirimental stuff hence the "X" in HMX. Who knows what, where and when this configuration of Helmet / O2 mask were used in.

 

Anything is possible

 

In either case nice group. If and when you decide to part with it, I may be interested.

 

Thanks for showing it

 

Semper Fly

John

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hbtcoveralls

can we see a few more shots of the helmet? Looks to be one of the early 1960s period APH-5 helmets with the rubber along the bottom of the visor. I've normally seen these in gold with blue Navy Wings on the front of the visor shell, and don't remember seeing a white one. Also which type of O2 mask receivers are there? Fantastic helmet and mask!

Tom Bowers

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Thanks for all the comments. There is a great pool of information here, thanks for sharing. I will try to get a few more pictures up later. The helmet is indeed an early gold APH 5 repainted /refurbed white. The o mask hookups are the old chromed Christmas tree type. Thanks...Tom.

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I don't think he used the helmet when flying for the Presidential support unit. As a pilot in the VIP aircraft it isn't needed to have a set up like that. As mentioned , a simple head set with boom mike was sufficient. The way the helmet is set up leads to his having flown a multi role aircraft, like maybe the A-4 Skyhawk. It flew low missions where no mask would be needed, just a boom mike for comms but the A-4 also flew missions above 15,000 feet where an O2 mask would have been needed. And I am not a real savvy Navy-Marine aviation person but many photos I have seen from the era where that helmet was a predominantly issued item, it was worn by practically every sort of Navy and Marine aviator of both fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft. That helmet was kind of the do-all, be-all accessory for those services pilots.

 

IH

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