U.S. 84th Airborne Division (Training) M-1 Plastic Liner
This M-1 liner is made of plastic infused duck cloth and features olive drab webbing. The front eyelet and the inner webbing attached to a circular central cloth indicates that this liner was constructed in the early 1950s. The webbing inside this helmet is olive drab. Before 1951 the United States used a khaki color twill cotton on all webbing. It is impossible to date the liner after 1958 because the webbing style changed in 1963 and the front center mounted eyelet disappeared on models produced after 1958.1 Because the 84th Division did not see combat between 1945 and 1991 it is unlikely that this helmet liner found itself in Korea but it can be dated to that era.2
Historical Context
h3. The 84th Division The 84th Division traces its origins to an Illinois Militia to which Abraham Lincoln was rumored to have been a part of. The symbol of an axe splitting a board symbolizes the units Lincoln connection and led to the Division nickname “The Rail-splitters.”1 The Rail-splitters’ were re-designated the 84th Airborne in July 1944 and the 84th Division (Training) of the Army Reserves in September of 1960. The Division saw considerable amounts of combat during the Battle of the Bulge and members acted as much dreaded “Hatchet Men” when breaking through the Siegfried Line in 1945. The 84th also participated in the occupation and liberation of the Ahlem and Salzwedel Concentration Camps in April of 1945.2 The 84th Division became a training Division after 1946 ceasing any further combat operations until the early 1990s. Members continued to train officers until being mobilized in January of 1991 to serve in Operation Desert Storm, the liberation of Kuwait.3
| United States | Korean War |
| Infantry Helmet | 1942 — 1988 |
| USH-23-0207 | |
