I was interested in the claim in the article that, after a press conference at the Capitol in Washington, introducing Willys prototype of it's submission for a military contract on February 20, 1941 - 10 months before the US entered the war that:
"One of the reporters then asked the Willys representative what the vehicle was called, and he responded: “We call it a Jeep.” The story appeared the next day in the newspapers."
That would sort of make the legends of WWII GIs naming it for a cartoon character, or short-hand for the designation "GP" impossible . Sounds like the folks at Willys named it....??
I'd put my money on the servicemen making a habit out of referring to it as a Jeep...we had nicknames for everything in the Marines. Most of the nicknames were some kind of derivative of the official designation...
I agree with you about military nicknames. I was convinced that "Jeep" was the way GIs would have referred to a vehicle designated GP, as it was after it was introduced into the military.
But, Willys officials seem to have used the term "Jeep" for the vehicle in Feb. 1941, well BEFORE it was seen or known about by any servicemen.
I know we are getting a little off track on the thread but I personally don't buy into the theory of the Jeep being a phonetic pronunciation of GP for "General Purpose". I agree, it makes sense because vehicles like the Highly Mobile, Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) being called the “Humm-V” but nowhere in the Willys MB or Ford GPW nomenclature does it say “General Purpose”.
I lean toward the term originally being generic for new vehicles. The word jeep, was used as early as 1914 by US Army mechanics assigned to test new vehicles. In 1937, tractors which were supplied by the Minneapolis Moline company to the US Army were called jeeps.
My 1942 Ford GPW's serial number was GPW82603 - GPW stood for General Purpose War, as I understand. I could be wrong...
[Not mine]
I have heard, and you have obviously well researched the term "jeep" being used for test equipment designs way before WWII.
So, maybe "Jeep" stuck to the MB/GPW, and not all that other equipment originally referred to as a "jeep" because of the association with the GPW designation, and with the poplar cartoon character, and the publication of the name after the Willys press demonstration in Feb 1941 - everybody's right....
Yeap, that article seems to be authoritative on that. Thanks for the link. Point is the the GIs seem to have thought it meant General Purpose, as stated in the same article, and the designation GP was one of those used for the Jeep. So, part of the story may still be the military slang for GP, "jeep" contributed to the term sticking to this vehicle.
I had also read or heard GPW as Government Purpose Willys. But had no idea the P indicated a particular vehicle wheelbase.
I don't think we will ever know for sure, but the version put forth in the article JeeperJake linked, and what you said in your first post in the thread, are very similar and probably as good as it is going to get.
Yes, but I always find it frustrating when history like this is lost and we can never really know for sure... Jeepers will be wondering and debating about the origin of the name forever!
Thanks to you and Jake for advancing my knowledge (and frustration) :drinks:
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