Original Item: One-of-a-kind. This is a rare and unique hand painted helmet for the 5th Aero Reconnaissance Squadron in World War One. It features a sky blue painted shell with a red painted rim around the skirt. The dome has a red, blue and white roundel painted on top. The front of the helmet has the words “Le Valdahon” painted in white with red trim. Le Valdahon is for Valdahon Airfield at “Camp du Valdahon” in Doubs, France. The camp opened in 1907 as a specialized unit for the collective training of primary units (companies, squadrons, batteries) with, as a priority, the use of mortars and engineering. Little information can be found about the airfield, as it is still a military installation today. The aviation activities have ended, however. What is known is that the Camp operated observation balloons as early as 1909.

Both sides of the helmet have a United States Army Air Service Observers Wing painted in silver and black. The original Observer Badge was a half-wing variation of the Aviator Badge worn by military pilots of the United States Army Air Service and later the United States Army Air Corps. The badge was mainly awarded to gunners, spotters, and navigators on the first armed military aircraft. With the advent of bombing, the Observer Badge was also initially authorized for aircraft bombardiers. A new badge was soon created for these duties, however: the Bombing Aviator Badge.

Those rated as Balloon Observers were also eligible for the badge, and the badge was typically referred to as both the Airplane Observer Badge and the Balloon Observer Badge. The design of the badge awarded was identical in both cases, and towards the end of the First World War was commonly referred to as the "Airplane and Balloon Observer Badge", although the ratings for which the badge was issued remained distinct.

The back of the helmet has “5 AAOS 5” painted in white letters with red trim. “AAOS” is an abbreviation for “Artillery Aerial Observation School” and the Number 5 indicates the Squadron number as well as the location number for LeValdahon which was for the 5th AAOS. Above AAOS is a “Red Baron” style German airplane painted in red with a black iron cross on the side and a green and yellow painted rear vertical fin and rudder.

Offered with liner and only a partial chinstrap. The shell is maker marked with a stamping on the underside of the rim that reads ZF 15. There is numbers and letters scratched in the paint next to the heat stamp, “# 205 LE”, we do not know what this could have been used for.

This is an wonderful example of a genuine USGI Great War helmet offered with a totally unique, period correct original paint job.

History on the M1917
The M1917 was the US Army's first modern combat helmet, used from 1917 and during the 1920s, before being replaced by the M1917A1. The M1917A1 helmet was an updated version of the M1917 and initially used refurbished WW1 shells.

The M1917 is a near identical version of the British Mk.I steel helmet, and it is important to note that when the US joined the Great War in 1917 they were initially issued with a supply of around 400,000 British made Mk.Is, before production began state side. The M1917 differed slightly in its lining detail, and exhibited US manufacture markings.

M1917 helmet liners typically show a paper label at the crown and the dome rivet head. The liner is set up as on the British versions, with an oilcloth band and net configuration, attached to a leather strap, riveted to the shell. The chinstrap is leather with a steel buckle.

WWI Artillery Spotting
In terms of artillery observation, the United States entered the First World War entirely dependent on the French and British for preparatory operational assistance on the modern battlefield. The American Expeditionary Force came to Europe with outmoded battle doctrines that anticipated a war of movement rather than the stagnant state of trench warfare practiced on the Western Front. Mobile warfare doctrine put artillery in an auxiliary role, subordinate to the infantry, rather than casting it in the lead and supposing it would help to achieve breakthrough. In the years prior to the war, the US Army had failed to prepare its artillery any better than it had built up its air power. When the first American units arrived in France two months after the declaration of war, they came without artillery. By the armistice the US Army had nearly 3,500 pieces. As the nation eventually did with its Air Service, the United States solved its artillery problem by purchasing most of its equipment from the French. The other element necessary to an effective artillery program, an observation system, also had to be built from scratch.
 
Possessing neither an air force nor an aerial doctrine, the United States had to act quickly to build an aviation organization capable of operating with its artillery units in France. The Army and Navy used the nearly $640 million Congress provided both to build and buy aviation equipment. Most of the material the American Expeditionary Force acquired abroad came from French factories.
 
American artillery officers realized how vital effective aerial observation had become and they attempted to address the problem quickly. They began training their own observers at artillery brigade training centers immediately after the arrival of the first US artillery units in France. The Air Service also began to train observers, but the artillery refused to entrust its officers to the Air Service at this early stage of American participation in the war, citing the necessity of its personnel training with their own units so they might become versed in French artillery methods. This arrangement proved unsatisfactory because the observers instructed by the artillery learned only how to work with the artillery without training in any other aircrew skills. In response the Army created an Air Service observation training organization. The basic course of instruction ensured the new observer finished training with at least elementary skills in the entire range of aerial observation topics, including reconnaissance, photography, infantry contact, and artillery observation. Subsequent advanced training in the finer points of artillery regulation took place in advanced schools placed next to the artillery training centers where artillery and aviation officers could train together in mock combat situations. In September 1917 the Army designated Tours, France, as the location of the Observers’ School and the first trainees began instruction there in January 1918. Sites for the advanced artillery aerial observation schools (AAOS), named in October, included: Coetquidan (1st AAOS), Souge (2nd AAOS), Meucon (4th AAOS), and LeValdahon (5th AAOS).