You're right. You cannot make this stuff up. They also promoted him to.... I think Major or LT colonel before he retired. I wont judge that...... but I could. The thing is, you could tell that his heart was in the right place, but he was not good at quick decision making and like the pic above, here everyone is, helmets on weapons.. Choppers flying in.... and there he is. His head down no helmet. He just should never have been in that job. Staff officer maybe.. leading a rifle company.... uh uh. when he walked in front of the company in formation, he walked like a British soldier. The guys would snicker. Yup, hes a rich guy now named Jennifer and married to a Woman. This is why I dont bother reading fiction. It pales in comparison to true life.  

So sad to hear. He was a great guy !

My guess would be it happened at unit level by some company armorer, or some troop wanting a new stock because the original was cracked or broken. Remember these were war time conditions, with interchangeable parts, consideration was not done for future collectors.  SKIP

Found a little info to help you get started.   From the 1910 US Census:   Name: George H. Pantley Age in 1910: 50 Birth Date: 1860 Birthplace: New York Home in 1910: Lakeland, Polk, Florida, USA Sheet Number: 7b Street: Rose Street Race: White Gender: Male Relation to Head of House: Head Marital Status: Widowed Father's Birthplace: Germany Mother's Birthplace: Germany Native Tongue: English Occupation: Carpenter Industry: House Employer, Employee or Other: Wage Earner Home Owned or Rented: Own Home Free or Mortgaged: Free Farm or House: House Able to read: Y Able to Write: Y Enumeration District Number: 0144 Out of Work: N Enumerated Year: 1910   Found a Commander Leland Frierson James in the USN officer registers. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1894, retired on 30 June 1912, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. The Naval Academy Library Archives should be able to provide service information that would include when he commanded a Navy yard.

Yup, that is an early style liner. The snaps for the rayon sweat band are a hand me down from the Hawley liner. Those snaps didn't last long before being replaced with the clip on sweat band. It looks like the nape is also rayon. The version before yours had the Hawley style rectangle fasteners instead of the A washers like yours and the leather liner chin strap was non detachable just like a Hawley. Nice transitional helmet!!! Very nice! I would go back to the store and start digging on who owned this.

Thanks for the answer. I had not thought of the patch in that way before, but I see it now.  

It’s the symbol of the Ordinance Corps.  mikie

Great find.   Ill double your money and you can go out searching again.😁

This is devastating news….like others said, he was a pillar in the USMC collecting community and got me started collecting China Marine items over 20 years ago. He was my go to man for so many areas and even warned off a friend of mine who was about to drop big bucks for a German Army Airborne helmet a few years ago…..he will be greatly missed. 

Sure it is real and does look theater made.  The 9th Engineer Support BN is a current unit that I believe deployed to both OIF and OEF.  Of course, all USMC patches with the exception of squadron patches are novelty patches and not worn on their actual uniforms.  This one looks like it may have been made to have a phallic impression?  SF - Jeff