Quote:
Originally Posted by Gone&DoneIt
I gotta jump in just because I have a question/challange for an answer presented, I believe if you look into it the monicker "Jeep" was actually credit to the vehicle being called a G.P. vehicle by the military standing for either General Purpose or (G) General, and (P) the 80" wheel base depending on who you ask. Just my .02 but I am 99.9% sure on this one.
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Before the flaming commences, I dug this up online to kinda support what I am saying:
"before you got behind the wheel of one, you had to be taught to refer to it in army school jargon ~ a Ford GP.
Based on the scuttlebutt on durability, you asked for the stronger "GP" by name when checking one out from the motor pool.
Then as you drove it around, the "GP" on the data plate on the dashboard stared you in the face for every foot of the miles you drove the Ford GP.
When there was a mechanical problem, you had to go into the glove box for the manuals, where you were again presented its model name "GP" in bold face type.
Upon returning it to the motor pool or bivouac area, you had to fill out the paperwork explaining why the GP was missing it’s side view mirror, or gas cap etc.
Guess who had to fill out the paperwork requisitioning a replacement? Not the Sgt., he's got more stripes than you do. You got to fill out the form, and you had to look up the part # in your GP's Ord 7 or TM, and there you would find that the rear view mirror you broke when you hit that tree branch was listed as part# "GP-17723-A at a cost of .65 cents" Reference ‘TM-10-1348 Change #1 April 10 1942 Ford Parts List’
Yes, early prototypes were called the quad, the pygmy, the peep, but when the production Ford GP's were released with GP stamped right in your face, they soon stopped calling the 1/2 ton dodges 'jeeps'. And the rest is history. The Ford built amphibious jeeps or GPA's were called "Seeps" by the way (see below for more info on them).
When the vehicle is called in writing a GP, and you’re taught that name in class getting your driver’s license, and there, stamped on the ID Nameplate on the vehicle itself, is the name, and when you say it’s name, GP, out loud in a normal cadence, it's a "jeepy".
Yes, Eugene the jeep from Popeye is a cute character, and both he and the vehicle can do just about everything, well WWII Jeeps can do almost anything (WW2 USMC special "Front Line Ambulance" Jeep buried in mud), but if you dig any deeper than the folklore, it's pretty obvious how the 1/4ton War Baby got it’s name. :) How the other things prior to 1940 got to be called jeep I do not know."