Plenty of people that own these jeeps care. There were thousands of
rebuilds by the US and French govt's using original & replacement parts. They
are no less of a jeep than one that never saw combat, traffic accident or
engine failure and is now in private hands in original factory condition.
Many vehicles & parts that would have otherwise been lost were saved through
this process that kept the vehicles in service.
Dennis O'Connor
doconnor@sikorsky.com
Naugatuck, CT, USA
_____________________________________________________________________________
WARNING - Point of Interest Story - Exit now or read at your own peril:
Last week at a monument dedication I got to see part of a Signal Corps
photo collection after chauferring a highly decorated WW2 vet in a friends
jeep for the occasion (I felt honored to have been asked and managed not to
break his neck with the clutch that needs adjusting). Most of the 8x10's
included vehicles of every description from both Allied and German forces.
Some of the photos were of American motor pools and depots in France
assembling trucks from kits that had been opened and the parts piled around
and apparently mixed with other kits or whatever had been scrounged from
wrecks. They were working from frame up - not subassemblies of chassis and
body. This could have happened for jeeps too and I don't know if there were
similar pictures to document this as there were approx. 3,500 photos and time
was limited. Point: Factories were big buildings in Detroit and elsewhere but
not all the vehicles came off those assembly lines.
I've already asked the owner if I can make copies of the collection or
better yet scan them and the request is being considered. They would make an
excellent archive without the fees charged by the National Archives in DC for
a copy of their copy.
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