I've seen a lot of pics with dudes sporting the CE mask and vest, and quite a few pics of guys with the CE mask but no vest. Do factors of the sortie determine whether or not the vest is worn, or is it more of a personal preference type of thing? Thanks.

It's worn if more than 6Gs are anticipated during the sortie. Written somewhere, maybe 112F16V3.

Originally posted by STBY GAIN:

It's worn if more than 6Gs are anticipated during the sortie. Written somewhere, maybe 112F16V3.

Same thing in the F-15. Interestingly, at bunch of us T-38C guys at Moody kept the MBU-20P masks we came from our MWS with. The life support guys had to doa little mod to plug the airway for the helmet bladder, though.

Hacker, did you guys keep the HGU-87/P helmet too, or do they fit you with the "old" HGU-55 like you were issued at SUPT? Thanks

Originally posted by Dirt Beater:

Hacker, did you guys keep the HGU-87/P helmet too, or do they fit you with the "old" HGU-55 like you were issued at SUPT? Thanks

Not really sure what an HGU-87 is, and I was even the LSO! I flew the Eagle with a HGU-55/CE helmet, which is a standard '55 with the CE bladder added in the back of the skull area and a hole drilled (sts) on the left side for the air line feeding that bladder.

My helmet also had little aluminum brackets riveted to the temples for NVGs, but that was not part of the CE mod.

Anyhow, I kept that same helmet in Smurf land -- they just removed the CE bladder and plugged the hole (sts).

The HGU-87 is naval aircrew issue. Gentex designed it to meet the Navy's need for a helmet that could withstand a 600 KEAS windblast and still retain it's visor. The Air Force figured a guy would have alot of other problems besides a lost visor at that speed, so they just CE'd their -55's and kept the elastic ribbon that holds the visor on.

On several UPT websites, I've seen pics of only a handful of guys (studs, not IPs) wearing the combat edge mask, and the rest wearing the gray -12/P mask. Do the CE masks have a greater size range, so maybe they'll fit larger faces that the 12/P's won't fit over? Odd question I know, but I'm really curious...thanks for the input!

[ 19 February 2004, 13:35: Message edited by: Dirt Beater ]

Although I don't know the book answer, from what I've seen they tend to fit differently. One of my bros was initially issued the combat edge and couldn't ever get a good seal with it... took it back to life support, got the regular style, and hasn't had any problems since. Another dude was the exact opposite..had the reg and switched to the combat edge. I was issued the combat edge on day 1 and never had any problems with it.

Most of my class has the regular one - but there were a few of us who got the Combat Edge. For me, it was because I just couldn't get a seal with the other mask - it was too big for my face. To me, the CE is more comfortable anyway - doesn't feel like it's hanging down off my face.