Losing My M-1 Helmet......
Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2020 12:37 pm
A couple years ago I acquired a M-1 helmet with a liner. The helmet shell was a WWII Schuleter made helmet, with a Korean War repaint. The liner was a WWII made liner with a ASN and name painted on it.
I was able to ID the soldier the liner belong to, but I won't say the liner and the helmet have been together since day one, or was even his to start with. This soldier joined the Army in 1937 and retired as an E-9 Sergeant Major in 1962. During the Korean War he had received a battle field commission to 2nd Lt and made it to Captain, before reverting back to enlisted status.
He earned a Bronze Star, Silver Star and 3 purple hearts. During WWI he served in Europe.
Well the Great Grand Son of this soldier reached out to me on a Militaria Forum with the desire to acquire this helmet to displayed with his great grandfathers uniforms, medals, documents, gear etc. Bad part is the forum that he reached out to me on, just went through an server upgrade or change and all posts, messages etc for June were lost. Hell even a search of his screen name on there comes up blank.
Hopefully he'll reach out to me again over this. The wife and I talked it over, regardless of what I have in this helmet, I could not with a clear conscious accept money for it. I would be willing to donate it and just have them cover shipping, unless they want to do a meet up.
I'll hate to see it go, but if it's going home per se to his family I'm all for it. I'll just have to start looking for another WWII M-1 helmet and liner for my collection.
I was able to ID the soldier the liner belong to, but I won't say the liner and the helmet have been together since day one, or was even his to start with. This soldier joined the Army in 1937 and retired as an E-9 Sergeant Major in 1962. During the Korean War he had received a battle field commission to 2nd Lt and made it to Captain, before reverting back to enlisted status.
He earned a Bronze Star, Silver Star and 3 purple hearts. During WWI he served in Europe.
Well the Great Grand Son of this soldier reached out to me on a Militaria Forum with the desire to acquire this helmet to displayed with his great grandfathers uniforms, medals, documents, gear etc. Bad part is the forum that he reached out to me on, just went through an server upgrade or change and all posts, messages etc for June were lost. Hell even a search of his screen name on there comes up blank.
Hopefully he'll reach out to me again over this. The wife and I talked it over, regardless of what I have in this helmet, I could not with a clear conscious accept money for it. I would be willing to donate it and just have them cover shipping, unless they want to do a meet up.
I'll hate to see it go, but if it's going home per se to his family I'm all for it. I'll just have to start looking for another WWII M-1 helmet and liner for my collection.