Nice.  I've never seen one of those sweatbands.   Steve 

From first hand accounts a lot of m1cs then the DOD started purchasing 70s 

Here is another pair. B&B Militaria had several pairs, and the pictures I've posted were from another site which sold a bulk lot of 16 pairs.

Reviving this because I've come across several of these pairs. I've seen them listed as "pre-WWII" before, but without any primary sources, I'm at a loss.

You are incredibly talented with these!

Following up:  USN helmets, served as long as they lasted. I had front seam, fixed bale helmets on my first ship in 1972. Helmets would be issued to a ship. They would stay with that ship as long as they lasted. They may be replaced, by helmets from “Salvage”. That was a depot, where, when a ship was decommissioned, all that sort of stuff was turned into. Basically, a ship would send a group of guys and a truck over and pick out however many they needed to replace losses. Other times, when a ship was being decommissioned, there would be a day, when the crews from other ships could go over and grab up everything they needed. This was also a way to replace lost helmets. With Navy helmets, don’t get hung up on numbers and such. That just tells you when it was made. It could have sat in storage for years. Bounced from ship to ship for decades. Even on a ship, it could move from station to station, getting repainted with different colors and markings. 

An excellent tribute to those G.I.'s Im sure they would love it!  Very nice! 

Your correct in your statement, Vietnam seemed to be pretty diverse when it came to Sniper specific rifles, some were military issue, others civilian models, and you’ll even see 03A3’s, or M1C’s around. Depends on time, place, and unit.

Hi. Served in USN, 1972-1999. The marking should actually be, “REP 3”. Which is “Repair Locker, #3”. Don’t worry about it having an “F” instead of “E”. Most likely, the “E” from the stencil set was broken or lost. Very common occurrence and we would just “Make Do”. Repair 3 was the repair locker that was designated for “Main Spaces”, (Fire/Boiler Rooms and Engine Rooms), although, it could respond to any damage. Yes, Damage Control helmets were painted Red. The helmet would have been kept in the repair locker, and tossed to whoever was standing at the locker door. ALL, Navy helmets are “Built up”, “pieced together”, however you want to phrase it. As they age, old helmets would be  canilbelized  and good parts used to repair other helmets. Ship board helmets were not issued to individuals. They were assigned to battle stations, and just grabbed by whoever got there first. Often though, guys would get a helmet, get it sized to fit, all fixed up with good parts and put their names on them, so they could get the same one each time. This was really determined by the station. I was a Signalman, all our gear was kept in the signal shack, out of the weather. Each man had his own set of gear, that we put our names on. Most stations didn’t do that. People rotated in and out of the stations often, so marking stuff didn’t really work. 

Nice. I didn’t even know these existed. Is the liner married to the pot? Or did it all come like that.