Old Canadian helmet, Question for the older guys

Gnome75

Gnome75

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I was looking over my old Canadian issued helmet that I figure was used in the 80's or 90's. I am sure there is some nostalgia for some guys but this before my time and I have a couple questions about it.

Here it is.

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The main question is what does the RJH stand for and was marking this on your helmet common practice?

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Was this common practice? I always though of this marking as an American thing. It also has fine print in what looks like pencil saying "A608981" under the two stripes. That's too short to be a Canadian service number. At least I think so, modern ones have two more numbers

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I am confident this Canadian because of appearance and the name inside the helmet. If PAUBERT 318 sees this, I have your helmet.

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Ah, I remember them well. Still have mine actually.

The R J H on the front of the liner are probably the initials of the owner; the two black bars on the back I have no idea about. As they are on the liner they could be anything, as they usually weren't seen anyway.

I knew guys that had all kinds of stuff drawn on their helmet liners.

On the headband is the name of the owner, and the numbers would be the last three digits of his Social Insurance Number, which was the common way to identify soldiers back then.
 
highlander said:
Ah, I remember them well. Still have mine actually.

The R J H on the front of the liner are probably the initials of the owner; the two black bars on the back I have no idea about. As they are on the liner they could be anything, as they usually weren't seen anyway.

I knew guys that had all kinds of stuff drawn on their helmet liners.

On the headband is the name of the owner, and the numbers would be the last three digits of his Social Insurance Number, which was the common way to identify soldiers back then.
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I concur with this assesment. Still have mine, as well. Certainly not built for comfort.
 
The A608981 could be a reserve service number from the 60's. Mine then started with a B 80**** and the reg forces number was SB 18****. So it could have been a service number.
 
Name and last three numbers off your service number is a old holdover from the British army regimental system and used in most Commonwealth countries. When the regiments were recruited from a localized area it was very common for numerous members to have the same last name so too make things easier they stuck with the last name and last three service numbers.

If you are curious about its origin check the NSN (Nato Stock Number) the middle two numbers gives you the country of origin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_Stock_Number
 
highlander said:
Ah, I remember them well. Still have mine actually.

The R J H on the front of the liner are probably the initials of the owner; the two black bars on the back I have no idea about. As they are on the liner they could be anything, as they usually weren't seen anyway.

I knew guys that had all kinds of stuff drawn on their helmet liners.

On the headband is the name of the owner, and the numbers would be the last three digits of his Social Insurance Number, which was the common way to identify soldiers back then.
Click to expand...

yup what he said...the cover was actually the later version, the earlier being a Vietnam war era one with green leaf on one side and brown leaf on the other....replaced by this woodland style pattern...

there were two styles of chin straps that were Canadian issue...one under the chin and the better one that stuck right to the front and bottom of your chin, this type had 45 degree metal clip attachments to the helmets...the yanks had some kind of ball in a socket arrangement and ours were snaps as I recall
 
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Thanks for the input guys.

Must have been rough when your helmet is the only water proof item you had. not to mention the standardized layering in the cold weather. When I was in (2010-2014) the water proof stuff was better but not great and standardized layering was over after basic.

I will be checking out the NSN number. I did not know you could look that kind of thing up

This chin strap is the better one that wannabe is talking about it. It is a snap that still works.
 
Your helmet liner is old, WW2/Korea War vintage, because of the rank grommet hole in the front and old style suspension web arrangement. Kind of rare to see such an old liner on issue in the CF in the 1980's.
 
Gnome75 said:
Thanks for the input guys.

Must have been rough when your helmet is the only water proof item you had. not to mention the standardized layering in the cold weather. When I was in (2010-2014) the water proof stuff was better but not great and standardized layering was over after basic.

I will be checking out the NSN number. I did not know you could look that kind of thing up

This chin strap is the better one that wannabe is talking about it. It is a snap that still works.
Click to expand...

Dude you have no idea , our rain gear was craaaaaappp! A green shower curtain or garbage bag would have been better in a downpour !

We use to use American rain gear / plum how until some one of rank would find out then hide them when they went away
 
So true, the 1980 rain gear was way beyond crap and even worse was reserves did not even get rain gear issued. When in Germany I bought American rain gear at a PX as that was the gold standard for rain gear and every thinking Canadian who spent time in the field did so, It came down (briefly) that US rain gear was NOT to be worn............but that order was universally ignored, followed by NOT to be worn in garrison, again pretty much universally ignored. Then some bright spark in government figured out hey lets make a "Canadian" version of the US rain gear that served the the CF till they discovered Gortex a couple of decades after everyone else.

When the CG634 came on issue I asked the supply folk if I could rummage around in the tri walls of out going M1 helmets and was free to help myself and was able to find a couple of WW2 vintage "bone domes" and liners.
 
shortandlong said:
Dude you have no idea , our rain gear was craaaaaappp! A green shower curtain or garbage bag would have been better in a downpour !

We use to use American rain gear / plum how until some one of rank would find out then hide them when they went away
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Yep.

When I was in Germany, all the guys in my unit would swap our berets ( a particularly useless piece of headgear) with the Americans for their baseball caps. Far more practical and useful, especially when driving.

Obviously, couldn't wear the around the base though.
 
WobblyHead said:
Name and last three numbers off your service number is a old holdover from the British army regimental system and used in most Commonwealth countries. When the regiments were recruited from a localized area it was very common for numerous members to have the same last name so too make things easier they stuck with the last name and last three service numbers.
Click to expand...

Last name and the last three is correct. Which was in the 80's your SIN
 
I have 2 sitting on the back shelf in my shop.

one with the cover like you have and the other with the older chinstrap and reversible cover.


Oh and yes the 'rain' gear was junk. It mostly just kept the warmer water in and only let the colder water seep in.

only thing you could guarantee was if you were wearing rain gear you were wet
 
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