I never really thought about my jeep being a “collectible”, more of a labor of love, but in reality, I guess it is. As a kid watching “Rat Patrol,” I was fascinated by the two jeeps on the show fighting their way across North Africa, and I wanted a World War II jeep in the worst way. As I got older, I decided it was time and picked up a jeep with a rebuilt motor and some of the original parts, then two more to use for parts. That started a ten-year long restoration project and a lot of time as well as money.
There were a lot of military vehicle shows at the time and that was a great place to scavenge parts. Each piece was stripped of paint, repaired, primed and painted for the final assembly. Each bolt had a specific “EC” mark, so digging through oily buckets at shows became a thing my wife never really enjoyed, but ultimately we were able to have every bolt ready and painted for when the body, frame, and engine were ready to be put back together.
That time finally came, and a group of friends helped me to get it all back together again. On a Saturday, we finished assembling the jeep and took her for a spin. How gratifying it was to speed down the road at a mind numbing 35-40 miles an hour with no doors, seatbelts, or directionals! It became an almost daily driver for me as work wasn’t too far from my house at that time.
The best part came when the Memorial Day committee from my town asked if I would be willing to take veterans that couldn’t march anymore in the parade. I was thrilled to be asked to do that and it became a yearly experience for me. Picking them up or meeting them at the starting place for the parade, you could see these veterans of Normandy, Bastogne, and the Pacific Theatre light up and flash back to their youth during those important war years. The satisfaction I felt was wonderful and I looked forward to it every year.
Since then those veterans have passed away and I have moved. I still have the jeep though and take her out once a week to keep the juices flowing. As I drive it around town, I always think about those veterans laughing and joking around in the back and it makes me smile. I guess my jeep is a collectible after all in more ways than one, the most important being the memories I will always cherish of my day once a year driving around in my jeep with real heroes.
