This incredible World War II lot was once used by World War II US Navy pilot Jim Sanford. During his time as a US Navy pilot, he heavily wore this flight helmet as it shows lots of use and not only the inner liner cat but as well as the chin guard. It also still contains his original early World War II-era flight goggles. It is not common for the goggles to stay with these pilot caps making this a rarer lot. The Navy's fighter pilots fought the entire war in the Pacific, from Pearl Harbor to the Home Islands. In 1942, flying F4F Wildcats, the Navy fighter pilots barely held their own against the Japanese Zeros. A handful of heroes like O'Hare, McCuskey, and Vejtasa scored some notable successes. The Navy contributed fighting squadrons to the Guadalcanal campaign, but did not achieve big results until late 1943, when the F4U Corsairs and F6F Hellcats arrived.The Hellcats in particular, operating from the simultaneously-arriving Essex-class carriers, began to decimate the outclassed Japanese fliers. From the Gilberts, up through the Marshalls and the Marianas, the carrier-based Hellcats swept the skies. (One notable unit, VF-17, the Jolly Rogers, under its CO, Tommy Blackburn, flew F4U Corsairs from land bases in the Solomons. I've included its fascinating story.)In the huge aerial battles of the Philippine Sea (Marianas Turkey Shoot) and Leyte Gulf, the navy aces essentially destroyed the Japanese aerial forces. After that, in the tough campaigns for Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and the Home Islands, the U.S. naval aviators faced poorly trained, but deadly, kamikaze pilots.