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Iraqi helmets take style from far, far away
Published on: 2005-05-31
Iraqi helmets take style from far, far away
By Michael Futch
Staff writer
Darth Vader runs the dark Empire with a metal fist in the original "Star Wars'' trilogy.
Staff photo by Cindy Burnham
Military collector Ed Hicks says the Fedayeen helmet looks like the one Darth Vader wears in 'Star Wars'.
In Iraq, the Fedayeen Saddam militia served iron-fisted ruler Saddam Hussein and his son, Uday. They did so while wearing futuristic-looking - and largely useless - helmets that recall Darth Vader's sinister headgear.
Commercial military collector Ed Hicks calls the Fedayeen Saddam helmet one of the most bizarre of artifacts. ''I saw news footage of these guys fighting in these silly helmets,'' he said. ''The evil Empire actually existed.''
The Fedayeen, established in the early 1990s, were fanatically loyal to Saddam. They dressed in black uniforms, their faces shrouded in black scarves - and topped it all with the science-fiction helmets.
Although they are meant to be intimidating, the Fedayeen helmets offered almost no protection.
''They are plastic,'' Hicks said. "They will not stop a bullet....He probably thought the Force was with him.''
The recent release of the latest Vader vehicle - ''Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith'' - got Hicks to thinking about what he sees as ''a real twist on a Hollywood fantasy.''
The 52-year-old Hicks, who served in the Army's 82nd Airborne Division from 1970 to 1973, has been in business since 1991. He's the owner of Warpath Military Collectibles on Hope Mills Road.
His shop is like a military museum filled with guns, swords, uniforms, flags, medals, badges and such. He keeps a couple of the Fedayeen helmets on display in the front.
About 18 months ago, he bought a collection of some 400 Iraqi military items from a soldier in the 82nd Airborne. ''He had boxed it up and sent it back. Even paintings of Saddam,'' Hicks said.
Three Fedayeen helmets were in the cache of goods.
''The Darth Vader helmets made (the American soldiers) laugh, so they destroyed them,'' he said. ''They kicked them, played soccer with them. They burned them. They shot them and blew them up.''
A complete Fedayeen Saddam uniform dresses up a seated mannequin near the storefront. It's a black cotton military cut uniform with black and gold insignia. One of the helmets covers its head. Attached to one side of the headgear is a removable rubber badge that shows the same Saddam image that appears on the Fedayeen Saddam flag.
''I call him Al - Al Qaida,'' Hicks deadpanned.
The Fedayeen wore black uniforms to instill fear, including the fiberglass-resin helmet that was supposedly designed by Uday Hussein.
Uday was known to love Hollywood movies and collected videos by the hundreds, according to the Williamson Murray and Robert H. Scales Jr. book ''The Iraq War: A Military History.''
From the research that he has done, Hicks said Uday was apparently a ''Star Wars'' fan. ''There's no question,'' he said. ''Look at that helmet and look at Darth Vader's helmet. From the side, that's really incredible.''
Publicists for Lucasfilm Ltd., the movie studio behind the "Star Wars'' films, did not respond to e-mail interview requests about the similarity.
Instilling fear
John Duvall is the director of the Airborne & Special Operations Museum. A Fedayeen helmet given to the museum by a donor can be seen in a gallery display on soldiers in the war on terrorism.
''That helmet, we thought, was one of the most interesting things we've seen - because it's an odd-looking helmet,'' Duvall said. ''It was designed to look peculiar and, I think, to evoke fear in the general population in Iraq.''
They may have looked intimidating, but the Fedayeen - known as "Saddam's men of sacrifice" - could not stand up to the firepower of the American and British forces that invaded in 2003.
''There won't be any more of these. Their army's gone,'' Hicks said, as he placed one of the helmets back onto a mannequin's head on a countertop.
He said he will never see a picture of Darth Vader again without thinking about the Fed-ayeen and their useless headgear.
"What were they thinking?''
Staff writer Michael Futch can be reached at [email protected] or 486-3529.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2004 The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer (http://www.fayettevillenc.com)
Published on: 2005-05-31
Iraqi helmets take style from far, far away
By Michael Futch
Staff writer
Darth Vader runs the dark Empire with a metal fist in the original "Star Wars'' trilogy.
Staff photo by Cindy Burnham
Military collector Ed Hicks says the Fedayeen helmet looks like the one Darth Vader wears in 'Star Wars'.
In Iraq, the Fedayeen Saddam militia served iron-fisted ruler Saddam Hussein and his son, Uday. They did so while wearing futuristic-looking - and largely useless - helmets that recall Darth Vader's sinister headgear.
Commercial military collector Ed Hicks calls the Fedayeen Saddam helmet one of the most bizarre of artifacts. ''I saw news footage of these guys fighting in these silly helmets,'' he said. ''The evil Empire actually existed.''
The Fedayeen, established in the early 1990s, were fanatically loyal to Saddam. They dressed in black uniforms, their faces shrouded in black scarves - and topped it all with the science-fiction helmets.
Although they are meant to be intimidating, the Fedayeen helmets offered almost no protection.
''They are plastic,'' Hicks said. "They will not stop a bullet....He probably thought the Force was with him.''
The recent release of the latest Vader vehicle - ''Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith'' - got Hicks to thinking about what he sees as ''a real twist on a Hollywood fantasy.''
The 52-year-old Hicks, who served in the Army's 82nd Airborne Division from 1970 to 1973, has been in business since 1991. He's the owner of Warpath Military Collectibles on Hope Mills Road.
His shop is like a military museum filled with guns, swords, uniforms, flags, medals, badges and such. He keeps a couple of the Fedayeen helmets on display in the front.
About 18 months ago, he bought a collection of some 400 Iraqi military items from a soldier in the 82nd Airborne. ''He had boxed it up and sent it back. Even paintings of Saddam,'' Hicks said.
Three Fedayeen helmets were in the cache of goods.
''The Darth Vader helmets made (the American soldiers) laugh, so they destroyed them,'' he said. ''They kicked them, played soccer with them. They burned them. They shot them and blew them up.''
A complete Fedayeen Saddam uniform dresses up a seated mannequin near the storefront. It's a black cotton military cut uniform with black and gold insignia. One of the helmets covers its head. Attached to one side of the headgear is a removable rubber badge that shows the same Saddam image that appears on the Fedayeen Saddam flag.
''I call him Al - Al Qaida,'' Hicks deadpanned.
The Fedayeen wore black uniforms to instill fear, including the fiberglass-resin helmet that was supposedly designed by Uday Hussein.
Uday was known to love Hollywood movies and collected videos by the hundreds, according to the Williamson Murray and Robert H. Scales Jr. book ''The Iraq War: A Military History.''
From the research that he has done, Hicks said Uday was apparently a ''Star Wars'' fan. ''There's no question,'' he said. ''Look at that helmet and look at Darth Vader's helmet. From the side, that's really incredible.''
Publicists for Lucasfilm Ltd., the movie studio behind the "Star Wars'' films, did not respond to e-mail interview requests about the similarity.
Instilling fear
John Duvall is the director of the Airborne & Special Operations Museum. A Fedayeen helmet given to the museum by a donor can be seen in a gallery display on soldiers in the war on terrorism.
''That helmet, we thought, was one of the most interesting things we've seen - because it's an odd-looking helmet,'' Duvall said. ''It was designed to look peculiar and, I think, to evoke fear in the general population in Iraq.''
They may have looked intimidating, but the Fedayeen - known as "Saddam's men of sacrifice" - could not stand up to the firepower of the American and British forces that invaded in 2003.
''There won't be any more of these. Their army's gone,'' Hicks said, as he placed one of the helmets back onto a mannequin's head on a countertop.
He said he will never see a picture of Darth Vader again without thinking about the Fed-ayeen and their useless headgear.
"What were they thinking?''
Staff writer Michael Futch can be reached at [email protected] or 486-3529.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2004 The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer (http://www.fayettevillenc.com)