UPDATE: A version of this issue was previously run in Oct 2020. I’ve improved the pics and added a little more detail to the introduction.
Here’s another six-page issue of Jeep News for the months August and September, which is followed in the post below by a special four-page “MAVERICK” Extra edition for the month of September.
Page one includes a short article about the US Post Office purchasing ninety FC-170s, all with power tailgates, which could mean that if you find an FC-170 with a power tailgate, it might have been a USPS jeep. Of the ninety, sixty-two had snow plows. All were stake bodies and painted red, white and blue.
Page two is all dealer-related info. Page three is mostly devoted to the Mile High ‘Jeep’ Club’s second annual ‘Jeep’ Endurance Run at FairPlay, Colorado.
Page four shows off a pretty neat truck, set up for fishing and camping. Also on page four, under “1943 Military ‘Jeep’ Vehicle Stars in Big Portland Rose Parade”, the article shares a little about the jeep and the parade. However, the jeep that’s pictured is actually an M-38. I can only suspect that the wrong photo was added to the article?
Page five has a misplaced headline for the Jeepers Jamboree (story on page six), when the story is actually about Meyer snow plows and other equipment (headline on page six). Page six is devoted to the Jeepers Jamboree.
Page one story states Post Office buys 90 Jeep trucks. The main Post Office on Market St. Paterson NJ had one of these FC170’s with a lift gate and Meyer snow plow. Had a stake bed body and yes, it was used for re-placing mail boxes. The Paterson office was a main hub for the post office with a maintenance garage for post office vehicles, so the FC170 was also used as a shop truck. They kept it for many years till the early 1970’s when it was replaced with a similar International Harvester 4 wheel drive truck. Then in the 1980’s, the IH was replaced with a Chevrolet C30. I still remember the face of the guy who drove the FC, short, stocky Italian guy, always wore his military style post office hat when he went to the hardware store where I worked.
Mike,
How in the world do you remember that stuff? I couldn’t…
– Dave
Dave, From the age of 3, Jeeps were always the focus point of my life, at the age of 71, they still are. When other kids were out playing baseball, I was in the driveway doing body work on a Jeep. When back in the 80’s I had a girlfriend, (Hard to believe but true) she would ask me: “Who do you love more, me or your Jeeps?” I would scratch my head with a long pause, and reply, “”I’m thinking, I’m thinking”… (old Jack Benny routine) Boy that would piss her off, but it was TRUE. And here I am 40 years later, still single, living with my 3 Jeeps, still thinking and thinking, it’s those memories that keep me going. I always was a unique kid, that didn’t “fit the mold”, now I’m just that strange old guy who lives with his Jeeps, very much like John Van Dine, one of my role models when I was a kid.
Wait .. you had me at … “a jeep and a girlfriend?” … oh no, now I see you were served the ultimatum, “me or the jeep”. A jeep might not keep you warm at night, but it doesn’t serve ultimatums during the waking hours 🙂
I had no idea they made the M38 back in 1943. I’m surprised a mistake like the jeep year was made in this publication. It’s on page four.
Kurt in Wenatchee…(love your Arby’s as you come into town in East Wenatchee)….
It’s the correct photo…the article says it transported the parade queen, and the Jeep has a sign saying that.
My guess (as a former “newspaper” publisher), is the article copy had a typo…1953…A correct year for a M38 became 1943. The person laying out the paper…which could have been at the printing company and not Willys…repeated the error in the headline.