We had another later model jeep, which came as a complete surprise.
When the first of our AD kits arrived, amongst all the parachutes, strapping, honeycomb and platforms, was a brand new jeep, complete with US army numbers and markings.
The explanation given to us by our US instructors, was for the early drops, they wanted a load that they were familair with, so they chucked the Jeep in.
We must have air dropped that Jeep so many times, until the end came.
I should explain for those that do not know, that we use a smaller chute to extract the load from the airplane, and then in due course as the load falls, then this same chutes pulls the bags off the main chutes, and the load then becomes a controlled decent. On its last ride, the deployment chute failed to pull the bags off. So the jeep and platform were driven at high speed into the ground, with amongst other things the prop shaft driven right through the rear diff.
Was not a great problem as the jeep had never been brought on charge, and actually could not be driven off the base.
Jeeps after the WW2 models, were not populair as the Australian content caused many problems.
Regards
Col
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Vietnam Vet and proud of it.
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