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Among the family of sun helmets, they are called differently according to its materials. Pith helmet for ones made by wickerworks of sola pith originally found in India and Southeast Asia. Cork helmet for ones made of oak cork, Felt helmet for ones made of leather felt or hard leathers (especially Prussian and German pickehaube). yet there's one.

Fiber helmet !!

Clearly it is a helmet made by fiber plastics, I believed that it is introduced in 1930s with the introduction of different types of polymers created/discovered by petrochemical industry. Brazilian is (possibly) the first nation to make its sun helmets out of fiber plastics

http://www.nyc-techwriters.com/militaria/brazilian_helmets.htm

This website claimed that this helmet is ballistic proofs as well as it is waterproof. by 1930s the ballistic characteristics are quite doubtful to me. though early ballistic vest has been introduced by then. and it is made of multilayer clothes of some kind. yet it wasn't common i think.

Another example of (possibly claimed to be) fiber helmet was ones worn by NVA troops of every ranks.. NVA from Vietnam War. though originally made of wickerworks of either pith or bamboo (or any vegetations that can make baskets), the plastic (some said it's fiber plastics) versions are more common, and it's still being manufactured today! and you can see it in headgear stores / sourveinior stores in Thailand too!


^ Traffic cops in Hanoi still wear it today

^ Actually it's made in China Chinese troops rarely wear ones but Vietnamese troops do! it doesn't really shellproof but they don it. in 'We were soldiers' movie you'lll see how weak this helmet is. well unless it was made of Kevlar

so what actually is 'Fiber Helmet' and name the 'fiber plastics' that made ones please.
Also did Brazilian examples bulletproof? the Modern PASGT is sometimes referred to as 'fiber helmet' , though Kevlar Helmet name is more common

Oh christ it's you again.

What exactly is the point of this thread? Can't you just Google this gak?

Are you asking a question or just posting obscure military minutiae? Either is OK but the presentation leaves one wondering what to follow up with, if you will.

The Marine Corps issues Pith Helmets to range coaches. Some are plastic, some are fibrous appearing, although they might be textured plastic. The conditions for wear are not very well defined, but it endures as an obscure piece of Marine Corps tradition, like wearing pistol belts on duty, as opposed to some dedicated piece of equipment.

The USPS also allows mailmen to wear plastic Pith helmets at their discretion for every day wear or inclement weather.

No, they are not bullet proof. Absolutely no way. A kevlar helmet is a formed shape made out of multiple laminated kevlar layers. A bulletproof pith helmet would be insanely heavy and unwieldy that I doubt anyone would be able to wear one for more than a few hours. Their only purpose is too keep the sun and rain off the wearer while keeping a military appearance.

PASGT helmets were secured to the user's head with a simple chin strap and a WW2 era suspension system. I own one, and had to use one in both MCT and Boot Camp. They are truly awful. I'm currently using a LWH with gel pads and a three point chin harness. I may privately purchase an Ops Core Ballistic Helmet, even though I doubt I would be able to use it in uniform.

Maybe I've spent too much time at work, but I read "fiber helmet" and thought someone was doing something insane with this:



I'm significantly underwhelmed.

 daedalus wrote:
Maybe I've spent too much time at work, but I read "fiber helmet" and thought someone was doing something insane with this:



I'm significantly underwhelmed.

To bad no one did, we'd all be so bright.............