Original Item: Only One Available. This is a fair, near-relic example of an original U.S. WWI M1917 “Doughboy” helmet retaining heavily worn period textured olive drab paint and an original hand-painted red keystone insignia of the 28th Division, AEF. The shell is stamped ZA 18 beneath the rim, and its construction, including the solid chinstrap-bale rivets, is consistent with U.S. manufacture. The liner and chinstrap are now absent, although the wool crown pad remains inside the shell.

The exterior and interior textured olive drab finish are both heavily worn, with extensive surface loss, dirt, oxidation, and general age wear. The shell has the well-used appearance expected of a helmet that has survived for more than a century.

The paint is in rough condition both inside and outside the helmet. The liner and chinstrap are both absent, but the wool pad is still intact inside.

The best feature of this helmet is definitely the original hand painted 28th Division emblem on the left side of the helmet. The Division Insignia maintains much of the original paint and is very dirty from years of service. It is a nice red "Keystone" emblem, well known to residents of Pennsylvania. We use the term 28th Division because during World War I, the divisions of the American Expeditionary Forces included infantry, field artillery, engineers, sanitary troops, signal troops, and a myriad of other unit types. These units were not designated as Infantry Divisions until long after World War I.

During WWI the organization was officially designated the 28th Division, rather than the later 28th Infantry Division. The Pennsylvania National Guard traces the division’s organized lineage to March 1879, when the state’s National Guard units were consolidated into the Division of the National Guard of Pennsylvania. It was designated the 7th Division in 1916 and, following American entry into WWI, was reorganized and redesignated the 28th Division in 1917.

The 28th Division entered combat in France during the summer of 1918. Elements fought along the Marne in July, followed by participation in the Champagne-Marne, Aisne-Marne, Oise-Aisne, Meuse-Argonne, and other operations in France and Belgium. Its performance during the fighting earned the division a strong reputation within the AEF.

This example is particularly noteworthy for the combination of its U.S.-manufactured M1917 shell, surviving ZA 18 rim stamp, heavily worn textured olive drab finish, original red keystone divisional insignia, and surviving wool crown pad. Although incomplete and heavily worn, it remains a strong representative artifact of the Pennsylvania National Guard’s 28th Division and its service with the AEF during WWI.