Gene Phillips
I bought my jeep in Georgia in 2004 from a military surplus dealer. It was in decent shape with some body work and cosmetic restoration. I believe it spent its life at Ft. Gordon, GA. The engine had a rebuild tag from the Atlanta General Depot dated 1960. I moved to Kentucky in 2007, and the jeep stayed outside. The paint had faded considerably, and the engine needed a rebuild but still ran ok. In 2012, the engine overheated and blew off a radiator hose. This resulted in a cracked block. I had a rebuilt engine shipped to Georgetown, KY to be installed by a local garage and a mechanic named “Catfish.” Catfish did a terrible job, and never could get the engine running. He had banged the main pulley to the point it bound the engine. I replaced the radiator, which was necessary, and the starter, which was not necessary. I finally gave up and shipped the jeep to Minnesota to the garage that rebuilt the replacement engine. They quickly got the engine running and sent the jeep to a local shop for some body work and a paint job. The bottom line of this project is DON”T LET A LOCAL LIKE CATFISH WORK ON YOUR JEEP! I wasted around $1,500 that I would have saved had I shipped the jeep to begin with. It looks and runs great now. The round trip shipping was $1,200–a bargain considering the time and expense I put into trying to undo the damage Catfish inflicted.
I have had my Jeep in parades in GA, Military Appreciation Day at the Class A Lexington Legends baseball team, and several July 4th parades in Georgetown, KY. Veterans love it, and children want to have their photo taken in it.
Retired Army Vietnam Veteran, LTC Eugene Phillips, with Desert Storm veteran, SGT Ivonne Beegle at the July 4, 2018 Georgetown, KY Parade.
There is also a photo of a WW2 Army Nurse, who tossed out the first ball on Military Appreciation Day at the ball park. She tended the wounded from the Normandy invasion through the end of the war in Europe.
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