Original U.S. Korean War / Vietnam War Era Single Panel Medic’s McCord M1 Helmet with Westinghouse / CAPAC Liner

Original Item: Only One Available. This is a 1950's production Korean War issue M1 helmet that has a rear seam stainless steel rim and a set of swivel (movable) chinstrap loops called "bales". The rims were both rust resistant and had "non-magnetic qualities" that reduced the chance of error readings when placed around certain sensitive equipment (such as a compass). This helmet is a fine example and the shell has all original "corked" grain paint a single red crosses square panel on the front. It bears heat lot stamp M 80 on the inside of the shell, indicating manufacture by McCord Radiator Corp in the 1950s. McCord also had produced large numbers of helmets during WWII.

The original chinstrap is intact and stretched over the rear side of the helmet, but the connection to one of the bales shows heavy denting.

The helmet is complete with a late issue, Korean War Era, "High Pressure" liner and leather chinstrap, with a CAPAC stamp on the crown over the Westinghouse W logo. The liner has retained most of its original paint. The interior has clean OD7 Olive Drab HBT Webbing secured by blacked “A”-Washers. The sweatband is present with heavy wear and minor dry rot, and the chinstrap is broken but both sides are still present. 

A very nice Korean War or Vietnam War era medic’s helmet, ready to display.

The M1 Helmet
The Ordnance Department selected McCord Radiator and Manufacturing Company of Detroit Michigan to produce the steel M1 helmet bodies. These bodies were made from a single piece of Hadfield Manganese steel that was produced by the Carnegie-Illinois & Sharon Steel Corporations. Each completed raw M-1 helmet shell weighed 2.25 lbs each. The total production of M-1 helmet shells during the war reached 22,000,000. Of these about 20,000,000 were produced by the main contractor McCord Radiator and Manufacturing Company of Detroit. Although McCord was supposed to be the single source of M-1 helmet shells, by the summer of 1942 a second company was enlisted to help the production effort. This was Schlueter Manufacturing of St. Louis, Missouri. Schlueter began production of its M-1 helmet shells in January 1943. Schlueter produced only 2,000,000 M-1 helmet shells during the war (both fixed and swivel).

The early M-1 helmet shells had a set of fixed (static) chinstrap loops called "bales" and a stainless steel rim. These rims were both rust resistant and had "non-magnetic qualities" that reduced the chance of error readings when placed around certain sensitive equipment (such as a compass). In October 1943, issues with the fixed bales breaking off resulted in a change to the "swivel bales" that this helmet has. In 1944, to deal with paint wearing off the very shiny stainless steel rim, the material was changed to manganese steel in October, and then the seam moved to the rear in November.