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remember when helmets looked cool?

MIDNJAC

MIDNJAC

is clara ship
pilot
Small price to pay to have gotten to fly Navy jets where they were meant to be flown I guess :)
 
sodajones

sodajones

Combat Engineer
Brett327 said:
That's because Marines are inherent thieves.
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grinch.jpg
 
Renegade One

Renegade One

Well-Known Member
None
Citation3 said:
The whole display they have going on there is pretty good. Lots of good history there.
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Don't know if it was mentioned earlier, but the "they" referenced above is the San Diego Air & Space Museum. The case contains helmets from all 4 of the fleet Phantom and Tomcat squadrons I served in. Only the VF-213 helmet is different from "my time". We went through two designs while I was there: first was a metallic gold helmet (think Notre Dame or Navy football helmets) with blue stripes w/ stars on the visor housing and "Lion" images on the side. Then we reversed it with dark metal-flake blue paint with gold reflective stars on the visor housing, and the same lion motif on the sides...
To steal a line from George Patton: "The Navy rejected it, of course...but GODDAM...it was beautiful."
 
Gatordev

Gatordev

Well-Known Member
pilot
Site Admin
Contributor
Renegade One said:
Don't know if it was mentioned earlier, but the "they" referenced above is the San Diego Air & Space Museum. The case contains helmets from all 4 of the fleet Phantom and Tomcat squadrons I served in. Only the VF-213 helmet is different from "my time". We went through two designs while I was there: first was a metallic gold helmet (think Notre Dame or Navy football helmets) with blue stripes w/ stars on the visor housing and "Lion" images on the side. Then we reversed it with dark metal-flake blue paint with gold reflective stars on the visor housing, and the same lion motif on the sides...
To steal a line from George Patton: "The Navy rejected it, of course...but GODDAM...it was beautiful."
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I can't remember if posted this before, but here's a -213 helmet, circa 1997 (a section with two slick A models. The gas didn't last very long):

me.jpg
 
nittany03

nittany03

Recovering NFO. Herder of Programmers.
pilot
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
MIDNJAC said:
USMC "PR's" are the only PR's I have ever seen do such ludicrous inspections. Nearly everyone in my RAG class had their CEP's taken from them as "un-authorized" and never returned. Luckily for me, I always put them in my helmet bag and took the bag with me when I was done flying. Our visors were also all collected, and then distributed at will. Ended up with a fantastic one with giant gouges on it. They also took all of our visor covers and gave them to IP's or who knows where. Then out the door, they gave me like half of the required items for my vest. Fleet PR's were super psyched about that when I checked in. Luckily we have PR's in the Navy who actually work for their paycheck.
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Meridian PRs got my O2 mask fit perfectly and tacked the straps down. They never messed with it while I was there, or if they did, they put it back exactly like they found it. It worked flawlessly; no jets of O2 in the eyes. I get to my first trip through 129, and some Corporal tells me "sorry, sir, those tacks are unauthorized." Yoink. But hey, they can put a grease pencil mark on the straps. Great. That'll keep. Try learning how to fly a Prowler, while simultaneously having to futz around refitting your mask that's been untacked, dangling from your vest, and getting all assed up in the process. Never got that thing to fit quite right.

Fast forward to 86 land, where I relay this occurrence to the civilian PRs, who look at me like I've got three heads. They fix my mask, tack it down again, and print me out a copy of the instruction authorizing mask straps to be tacked so I can take it with me back to 129. Never had a problem since, and it's much easier to dork around in the cockpit with such things as an NFO anyway. But "sorry, sir, that's unauthorized" still irks the crap out of me looking back. Know your damn job.
 
MIDNJAC

MIDNJAC

is clara ship
pilot
I will say that the Meridian PR's, while quite helpful and cool, did manage to F up everyone's CEP's with unauthorized zip-tying and such. RAG didn't catch it, but fleet PR's did, so I've been flying without until they can order a new kit. The original install was what resulted in them over time, and G's endured, not working (one ear was always shorting out in flight). That and their O2 mask install was all crooked. Took me until now to figure out why my mask never fit. JHMCS mask was fit right, and it is 100% better. That said, they did do a better job in Meridian than @ -101.
 
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