Clyde Andrews preps for another trek with Jeep

OTHELLO - In 2012 Othello's Clyde Andrews is going on his second trek with friends from the Military Vehicle Preservation Association.

The group plans to drive military rigs from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada, and head for Alaska on Aug. 4, 2012.

The trip reenacts the 1942 construction of the Alcan Highway, which was built to connect the U.S. to Alaska through Canada.

More than 50 people have signed up to participate, Andrews said.

It won't be the first time Andrews, 76, has taken to the road with his military rigs.

He and group members caravaned across the U.S. in 2009.

It's when they traveled the Lincoln Highway from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco, to commemorate the Transcontinental Motor Convoy.

The caravan was done to see if the U.S.' roads could withstand army vehicles during long distances in 1919.

Army observer Lt. Col. Dwight D. Eisenhower witnessed the convoy. It happened after World War I. He envisioned the U.S. might be fighting a future war in its own country.

He later became a World War II general and U.S. president.

Ninety years later, Andrews recalled highlights of the 2009 reenactment.

Children would wave American flags at the drivers. Elderly people would come out of their nursing homes in wheelchairs to show their support. Families would have their photos taken in the rigs during stops in communities.

"You couldn't drive but for the tears," he said. "It just was a marvelous experience."

His wife, Bonnie, drove a motor home during the 3,250 mile trip, which 34 group members completed with more than 100 military vehicles.

He started collecting the vehicles in 1995, when his son, Craig, then a college student, was asking him for a weapons carrier.

Clyde drove 8,000 miles across the Northwest and found the vehicle in Vancouver, British Columbia. It previously had been in Sweden.

After World War II, it took the American government a long time to bring vehicles home.

"I have a Marine Corps Jeep, a Navy truck," Clyde said. "Fifteen years later, I still have the green disease."

Willys made more than 250,000 Jeeps during World War II. Ford manufactured the same style, because Willys didn't make enough, he explained.

Andrews found that Ford and Willys Jeep parts were interchangeable. He noted that a Ford Jeep is more of a collector's item.

He owns nine rigs total, five are smaller sized Jeeps, with a few having the look of a pick-up made into a Jeep.

Andrews explained that during the start of World War II, the government needed Jeeps fast and converted some smaller trucks for that purpose.

His collection includes: a 1942 command car or a general's car, a 1944 Dodge, a U.S. Navy low-profile truck, a "Mighty Mite," which is a smaller Jeep developed by the Marines to parachute out of a plane, and a Korean-era 1952 Willys Jeep.

By 1952, the Jeeps had round fenders.

"By a glance, I can tell if it's World War II or Korean era," he commented.

He called one of the Willys, "a rust bucket." Before the Jeep was restored, he could see through the floorboards.

"It did take a lot of restoration," he said.

Andrews isn't a veteran, but he does appreciate them. He drives the veterans through parades in his Jeeps and is a familiar sight during local events

He appears in an American Legion parade in Moses Lake on Sept. 19.

For more information, visit the Military Vehicle Preservation Association's Web site, at www.mvpa.org/.