I served in the Marines from 1981-1985. The first 3 years we had the M1 and the last year I was issued a PAGST helmet. We thought it looked cool, but immediately wished we had our old helmets back, for probably the stupidest reason in the world. We loved the fact that we could take the steel pot out of the liner, turn it upside down and use it as a water basin for shaving and such.
The stamp in the crown of the helmet isnt the date. The date is an ink stamp on the back of the helmet on the inside, along with the NSN,identification of the entity, size,and name of the manufacturer
I realize this comment is years old but I missed it the first time and want to address it in case anyone reads it in the future. The ink stamp has the contract number which includes the last 2 digits of the Fiscal Year (October 1st of the previous calendar year through September 30th) that the contract was awarded. The only thing that number means is during that fiscal year the government and the company agreed on the details and signed a contract. Depending on the details of the contract the company might have to make and deliver the items within a few months, or they might not have to make their first deliveries until a couple years later. Sometimes the contract will have a clause that after the initial number is supplied, the government can choose to pay more to have another batch made. So contract numbers are a quick and easy way to get a rough idea of when an item was made, or at a baseline it cannot be earlier than. But they are not precise, and so if you want a more accurate date you need to use other sources such as looking up the details of the contract online. In the case of PASGT helmets the year they were actually manufactured was molded into the crown by a changeable insert in the mold. Similar dates, often going down the month or day, are extremely common on molded plastic items such as on the backside of plastic buckles.
Unlike the m1 helmets there really isnt much info that i can find on pasgt helmets.Maybe in the future?This is the only video I could find on youtube talking about this.
There's a book from the late 1990s by Mark Reynosa called "The Personnel Armor System Ground Troops (PASGT) Helmet." I bought a copy off Ebay. It's absolutely fantastic. Huge amount of detailed information.
is there any size difference at all between the 2? And does it have the same amount of Kevlar? Like does one offer more protection than the other? Thanks
There is no chance in the sizes or any difference in protection. Towards the end of PASGT production there were some attempts to make lightweight models, but as far as I'm aware those offer the same level of protection, just at a lighter weight. However I'm not very knowledgeable about those.
