Helmet

Behold the lowly helmet. High on the body, low on the totem pole. Our version is just the recent expression of a soldier’s desire to protect the skull.

We wear our helmet whenever we leave a building, and we wear it when we drive, even in an SUV or civilian auto. If we lounge around the CHU or walk to the gym wearing our PT uniform, we wear the helmet. We wear it all the time, except when inside, or when doing PT. Inside a tent counts as inside, so we don’t wear our helmet there.

I have been wearing my helmet pretty much constantly for 16 months. During those months, it has been hot and very hot. Ever see an old straw hat or baseball cap that the wearer has heavily sweated in? Dark and stiff around the headband? Our old helmets had a leather headband, which got dark and stiff after not very long. When you were issued a new helmet, you’d always try to get a new sweatband, although sometimes you were stuck with the one sweated in by whomever wore the helmet before you got it.

We have a new version of helmet now. You can see the soldiers wearing it on TV and in pictures. The old one, made of Kevlar, resembles the German WWII helmet, and dips down over the ears sheltering your entire head. However, if you lay on your stomach and try to fire your rifle, the back of the helmet hits your back and tips down over your eyes, making it difficult to see, and shoot.

So, the new helmet is shorter and does not cover the back of your head as much, so you can lie prone and shoot. The down side is, it exposes the base of your skull. Unfortunately in this war, we don’t do a lot of lying on our bellies and shooting. The biggest risk is from IEDs, bombs lying on the ground, exploding upward. Covering the lower part of your skull might be useful from a ground explosion. We don’t get a choice of helmets; we wear the new style, regardless.

The new style has nice cloth-covered foam pads to hold on your head, much more comfortable that the old leather sweatband and mesh. The foam pads are black, and we get issued one set with the helmet. I have been sweating into those pads for 16 months, less about 3 cooler months. Lucky they’re black to begin with, or they'd look like the old leather sweatbands.

When I take off my helmet, I put whatever I’m carrying into it so I don’t forget it and leave it. Notebook, sunglasses, water bottle, whatever. I have to be careful with my sunglasses and be sure that the lenses don’t touch the pads, or they will get smeared with oil. I try not to think about those pads against my head.

In WWII movies the soldiers never fasten their chip straps, and they always swung loose, even in combat action. We always do. Look closely at pictures; you won’t find a American soldier with an unfastened chin strap.