6A | WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20, 2018 | SIUSLAW NEWS
Siuslaw News
Community Voices
Military Heritage Chronicles —
Cal Applebee
Special to Siuslaw News
I
t has been almost eight years
since I first wrote an edition of
the Chronicles on the develop-
ment of the iconic jeep vehicle.
With our recent second annual
Jeep Junction event with an
increased crowd learning about
Jeeps, I thought it might be time
to revisit that topic.
Back in the late 1930s, as war
clouds from across the pond
were moving towards America,
military leaders were already in
the process of seeking options
for replacing the tried & true
cavalry horse as a means for
transporting troops. It was time
to mechanize the “modern
army.”
After experimenting with a
variety of other platforms, the
Army Quartermaster Corps set-
tled on a concept they thought
would do the job, and developed
specifications and put out an
invitation to 135 different auto-
motive manufacturers to submit
bids and prototypes. Out of that
effort, only two auto manufac-
turers responded: American
Bantam Car Company in Butler
Pennsylvania and Willys-
Overland in Toledo Ohio.
Eventually, the Army realized
that Bantam’s production capa-
bilities would not be able to keep
up with the anticipated volumes
of vehicles they would be order-
ing, so Willys continued with its
prototype, and the Army even-
tually talked Ford Motor
Company into also participating
With the production con-
straints of Bantam, they were
eventually dropped from the
contracts after delivering just
shy of 3,000 vehicles. Both
Willys-Overland and Ford
Motor Company went on to
produce jeeps for the military
thru mid-1945, with Willys pro-
ducing approximately 348,849
units and Ford producing
approximately 277,878 units.
After the war, American
The Iconic Jeep
Bantam
Car
Company went
on to manufac-
ture a variety of
other steel prod-
ucts, but never
entered the auto-
motive industry
again, and even-
tually faded into
oblivion in the
mid-1950s.
Ford
Motor
Oregon Coast Military Museum
Company wasn’t
hosted its second annual Jeep
interested, at the
Junction at Johnston Motor
time, in continu-
Company in Florence on Saturday.
ing jeep produc-
tion, and went
back to their own passenger car tary use initially, the civilian
and truck efforts in the post war models would go on to unprece-
years. Willys-Overland realized dented success for nearly 80
the importance of the jeep vehi- years, at current production.
cle that came out of the collabo- Not only does the original Jeep
rative effort during the war, and platform still exist, albeit consid-
even before war’s end, had start- erably more refined from its ori-
ed re-designing both the vehicle gins, the Jeep has spawned a
as well as uses for marketing, whole new genre of vehicles that
and in late 1945 and into 1946 evolved over time to the SUV
began manufacturing the now market, with multiple clones fol-
famous CJ2A, both for the lowing suit.
American market as well as
In addition to the significant
overseas, where the jeep vehicle impact this little vehicle has had
already had a lot of acceptance on automotive heritage, it also
and credibility
had an impact in the medical
Though developed for mili- field. According to an article
which ran in the Feb. 28, 1944,
edition of Time magazine, “Jeep
Disease” was the name given by
doctors for a disorder resulting
in a congenital cist on a man’s
spine — caused by the harsh ride
of a military jeep!
They don’t ride much differ-
ent today.
We had over two-dozen Jeeps
ranging from 1942 through 2015
make an appearance at the
Oregon
Coast
Military
Museum’s recent annual event.
There were pristine restored
military as well as early civilian
jeeps, as well as a bevy of mod-
ern Wranglers, some with con-
siderable modifications and a lot
of personality — maybe even
attitude!
In the military category, five
different Ford-built jeeps were
in attendance, as well as the
iconic 1942 “slat grill” manufac-
tured by Willys/Overland,
which is now on display in the
museum.
We expanded the award cate-
gories this year to include People’s
Choice Awards for both military
and civilian. Traci Kelley from
Coos Bay with her 1943 Ford
GPW won for military, and civil-
ian went to Scott Ryland’s 1984
CJ-8 Scrambler. Ryland also took
home the Newest Award with his
2015 Wrangler JKU, and Oldest
Award went to Jim May of
Eugene with that awesome 1942
slat grill.
You can learn more about
military jeep heritage (as well as
other military vehicles) by visit-
ing the website for Military
Ve h i c l e P r e s e r v a t i o n
Association at www.mvpa.org,
and you can learn more about
the Oregon Coast Military
Museum by visiting 2145
Kingwood St. or www.oregon
coastmilitarymuseum.com.
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All of our fresh menu items are made
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Open Daily for
Lunch menu offered from 11-6pm
Homemade Soup Daily
Beer, Wine, Cocktails
Mo’s Restaurant
Daily
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and for dessert...
SNICKER OR PEANUT BUTTER PIE FOR
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Mo’s Old Town, Florence • Daily 11 am - 8 pm
Serving Bowls of comfort for Over 50 Years
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