"Shemya"

[knife7knut]

This is the story of a helmet and my attempt to find out the somewhat cryptic message on the inside of it. It started with me looking for a fireman's helmet to paint up to auction off at one of our charity auctions. I had painted many different types of helmets including race car and pith helmets but had never done a fireman's helmet.
At the local flea market one day I spied one of them in a friend of mine's booth and asked if it was for sale. He said yes and I picked it up to examine. It looked to be in great shape and fairly old.On the inside someone had hand lettered(with paint)an inscription that said:"To the,"Collector's Item" "From Mike Snyder and the Chemya Fire Department" and on the front outside was lettered,"USA FD".
My friend said he had got it from his grandfather's estate and said he had collected fire apparatus. He thought it might have come from a town in Indiana. I was intrigued with the inscription and bought the helmet for $10 and decided that before I re-finished it I would see if I could find out what it meant.
At home I punched the name,"Chemya" into my computer and the sole entry was about the Chemya Island Air Base located at the extreme western end of the Aleutian Islands.In fact it is the 6th island from the end of the Aleutian chain and approximately 1,200 miles southwest of Anchorage Alaska. It was used as a refueling stop for aircraft during WWII on their way to bombing Japan. After the war it became somewhat of a secret base allegedly for spying upon the Soviet Union. Although it is no longer an official military base there are still occupants there although their purpose is not generally known. If you are interested further you can Google the name and read about it.
Despite a prolonged effort to find out who Mike Snyder was and who the,"Collector's Item" might have been, I still have no clue. I assume that he was either a fire fighter or possibly the fire chief there. As to exactly when is still a mystery and I don't foresee finding out anytime soon.I am also curious as to how it made the journey from Shemya to Michigan.
The pictures show the helmet and also I downloaded a couple of pictures of uniform patches of the Chemya Fire Department;one of which shows the location of the island. I decided to leave the helmet as is rather than possibly destroying a part of history. Hope you enjoy the pictures and the story.

[philco]

Ray I love a good mystery and you've certainly presented us with one here. I'm thankful you had the wisdom to leave this helmet as is. Hopefully some day the blanks will be filled in. In the meantime, thanks for sharing with us here.

Phil

[stagman]

Howdy Ray, how is things back in Tecumseh ???
It says Northwest Airlines rented a area there back in the
1950's...also that Shemya was used as a "fire training facility"
So maybe this Mike was stationed there and then made his way back to Michigan.
I still would love to own that bolo tie stag knife of yours

Will

[dlr110]

Don't know if you have looked for this company, but I found this website for E.D. Bullard that makes fire protection equipment and they have been in business since 1898. In their history video it says they invented the "Hard Boiled" hat in 1918.
It's a shot in the dark, but you might give them a call or send them the same pictures and see if they can help you. Good luck.

https://www.bullard.com/video/youtube/VYY-N6g0hbc

[rea1eye]

Ray you might want to join a Fireman equipment forum (especially vintage). I would imagine
there probably are several. Join as a newbie and ask away!

Bob

[orvet]

Great story Ray!
The term Crash Fire and Rescue sounds like a military term to me. In the Marine corps and Navy it used to be called Aviation Crash Fire & Rescue, or just Crash Crew for short.

[Mumbleypeg]

Great story. One of our son’s friends was a “fireman” in the Marine Corps and was stationed at Air Force bases during his active duty. (Seems the Air Force uses Marines to fight their fires. or maybe there was a Marine Corps air unit there). Next time I see him I’ll ask if he knows anything about Shemya. BTW after he left active duty he was in the reserves and went several times to fight wildfires in California, Arizona, etc. Dangerous work. He’s now employed at a local fire department.

Ken

[knife7knut]

Great story Ray!
The term Crash Fire and Rescue sounds like a military term to me. In the Marine corps and Navy it used to be called Aviation Crash Fire & Rescue, or just Crash Crew for short.

I remember the guys in the crash crew always went to the head of the chow line whenever they came in.I was reading a little about Chemya and I'm glad I was never stationed there! Only about 5 square miles and very windy.Civilization is a LONG ways away!