Helicopter pilot APH-5 flight helmet with headset kit : D S Gibbons, Photojournalist

Black painted APH-5 flight helmet fitted with a MK-896/ AIO headset conversion kit and improvised headphones, which are attached to the helmet by a pair of string loops. Supplied with adjustable visor and snap fastener chin strap. Interior is padded with foam to which leather inserts have been glued to adjust the helmet's fit. The reverse of the helmet is decorated with a large white Playboy Bunny head with the number 19 underneath. The visor cover is decorated with the name 'GIBBONS' in white paint.

Born in Sydney in 1937, Denis Gibbons had undertaken army training and work as a news photographer in Sydney before he arrived in Vietnam in January 1966. For the next five years, Gibbons recorded the tours of nine Australian infantry battalions for Fairfax press and United Press International. Australian readers could regularly view his photographic essays in People magazine. In all, he took tens of thousands of black-and-white and colour photographic that together provide a very comprehensive view of the activities undertaken by Australians during the war.
The extended period spent by Gibbons in Vietnam was highly unusual among Australian photographers. Most official photographers and other photojournalists tended to spend just a few days photographing an operation before moving on. They were also based in Saigon, a city that remained far removed from the gritty reality of the war. However, Gibbons lived at the 1st Australian Task Force base at Nui Dat and was able to spend months with a particular unit. In this way he could record all areas of the work of Australians in great detail.
Gibbons was flown out of Vietnam in November 1970, after being wounded when an Armoured Personnel Carrier he was travelling in hit an enemy mine; he was wounded six times over the course of his five years in Vietnam.

• Flight helmet carrying bag : D S Gibbons, Photojournalist