Here's a look at an interesting Jeep, thanks to an unknown photographer who documented the visit of a 3-star General in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam to a base at Duyet Binh sometime in the 1960's. He was apparently there to review Vietnamese special forces (60K JPEG) with their American advisers.
The General probably did a lot of reviewing, because he seems to have had a Willys CJ-3B custom fitted for the purpose, including front badges and flags, hubcaps and whitewalls, and a railing and stairway in the rear (see below).
The pictures are good -- they look like they were taken by a experienced photographer, probably working for the military. And as well as making the troops look professional he gives us a pretty good look at what seems to be a civilian CJ-3B supplied by the American government.
The tailgate has been replaced by a set of stairs which may have folded up or they would make the vehicle pretty useless for other purposes.
This rear view is enlarged from part of the photo above -- click it for an even more magnified view. Luis Mariano Paz notes that it shows a Kaiser government warranty sticker on the dashboard. Kaiser guaranteed the vehicle for 2 years or 24,000 miles in U.S. government use, but the sticker was also found on some Jeeps sent as foreign military aid. Luis enclosed a photo of a similar sticker (100K JPEG) from an M606 in Argentina.
The rear bumperettes are the only feature typical of a militarized M606 Jeep -- everything else is plain civilian 3B with cosmetic additions. Can anybody identify the flag on the fender, or supply any other relevant information?
Thanks to Luis, who found the photos in
hoapham's community webshots album. -- Derek Redmond
See more CJ-3B Jeeps in Vietnam.
Also on The CJ3B Page, see more CJ-3B and M606 Military Jeeps.
CJ3B Home | Site Map | Updates | Search | Links | Bulletin Board
