Bearing white lieutenant's bars (front and rear on the shell, front only on the liner), as well as a spade followed by a dash on each side; among the symbols used by the 101st Airborne Division, the spade is associated with the 506th Parachute Infantry, with the location of the dash indicating the 1st Battalion. The steel shell is of an early design, with the seam of the edge trim positioned in the front, a set of curved fixed bales for the tan chinstraps, and a roughened exterior texture. Both a conventional leather chinstrap and a more elaborate multi-point "paratrooper" chinstrap are installed in the liner. The helmet is attributed by the consignor to a First Lieutenant Harold B. Carter of A Company, 1st Battalion, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne, and a photocopied U.S. Army deceased personnel file is provided. According to the information, Lieutenant Carter was killed in action (declared dead, no body recovered) in Holland during Operation Market Garden, with a declared date of death of 6 October 1944. Per the 506th's after action report and condolence letters sent home by Colonel Sink of the 506th and Major General Taylor of the 101st, Carter was struck by German mortar fire during a repeated exchange of land outside of Opheusden; Carter's body went unrecovered; Carter's family was first told that the place of burial couldn't be disclosed due to censorship restrictions. While Lieutenant Carter's brother (a fellow officer) received word-of-mouth information that the body was found and interred at Eindhoven, no such burial was found. Post-war investigation of both German and British records show that they had not recovered the deceased either. In an inquiry run by the 7887th Graves Registration Detachment, the working hypothesis was that the Lieutenant's body was disposed of by German forces who had retaken the town from the 506th and were then in turn driven out before proper documentation could be made. Lieutenant Carter's personal effects were returned to his father, Millard Carter of Cordele, in Georgia in 1945; unfortunately, the included effects inventory is blurry to the point of illegibility, preventing verification that a helmet was among the items returned to the family.

Very good overall. The shell shows some bright rubbing on top and along the brim, with a few dents in the trip, and the liner shows a short tear/split in the brim. The canvas and leather components show wear and staining appropriate to age and use.