I figured at the very least that the church still existed. So, I made some guesses and determined where I think the photo at the bottom was taken.

The church is in the town of Gela, Italy. The church still looks about the same, but the building to the left has seen some changes.

View all the information on eBay

“1943 Press Photo Soldiers in jeeps park outside of building & old church, Sicily. This is an original press photo. World War II – Sicily. … glory flies from a building in Gela in southern Sicily after the city fell … invading Americans. A column of jeeps pauses near an ornate old church which looks out of place beside modern military machines. Photo measures 7.5 x 7 inches. Photo is dated 7-24-1943.”

in 1961, President Kennedy signed the Peace Corps Executive Order. Since then, over 1/4 million volunteers have served around the world. Given the rough conditions, especially in the early days, jeeps were a natural fit for the volunteers heading to remote areas. Folks were even trained on how to used jeeps as a part of their introduction to the Peace Corps.

There seems to have been a wide variety of jeeps used by the Peace Corps. How the jeeps were obtained isn’t clear, but at least some in 1965 were donated by Oakland Motor Sales. I imagine the military versions, like the M-170 seen below, could have been transferred to the Corps. After a few years of service, some areas of the world abandoned jeeps. For example, a deteriorating jeep fleet in Sierra Leone led to the abandonment of jeeps, at least according to this article. In another example, according to Ron Horton, who wrote a somewhat risqué look at his time in the Peace Corps, jeeps were quickly phased out in favor of bicycles, because the bikes were considered more friendly by the person who oversaw the Brazilian Peace Corps units.

Here are a few photos related to the Peace Corps and Jeeps:

PEACE CORPS TRAINING:

1964, NATIONAL ARCHIVES, CAPTION: Peace Corps trainees on the D.H. Lawrence Ranch near Taos, New Mexico. Three men in jeep on sandy hill, sand flying through air.

1964, NATIONAL ARCHIVES, CAPTION: Peace Corps trainees on the D.H. Lawrence Ranch near Taos, New Mexico. Six women driving in snow-covered dirt road, juniper bushes in background.

1964, NATIONAL ARCHIVES, CAPTION: Peace Corps trainees on the D.H. Lawrence Ranch near Taos, New Mexico. Jeep ascending steep dirt hill. [THIS MIGHT BE A CJ-3A GIVEN THE SIDE MOUNTED TIRE]

Here’s a wonderful photo of Perdita Huston, former Peace Corp Director of Mail and Bulgaria, in a WWII jeep:

Peace Corps, late 1990s, Perdita Huston

This photo of a CJ-3B with a Koenig hardtop in Chile was taken around 1965:

CAPTION: Peace Corps volunteer Emory Tomor waiting for a farmer and his oxen to pull his Jeep out of the mud. Photograph, c1965. View the photo at fireartamerica.com.

Finally, there’s no caption with this image of the back of a jeep, possibly a 1948 CJ-2A given the spare tire location: