Hey guys this is John at JeepsterMan today we're here at the Vet Classic 2022 at Craters Mill. But today we're going to talk about a special exhibit, kind of a cold war exhibit, and then the vehicle the "Code Blue". So we've got Tim here, Tim Slawson this is his vehicle uh it's a 1955 M38A1 correct? What we'll do, walk around this vehicle, Tim's going to talk about this vehicle- talk about their cause and what they're doing and share some of this code blue of what they're doing- and doing with their projects. So Tim here can tell us more about this vehicle: where it came from, and this and that. We first got the idea to really buy a Jeep was when I started, I was working with another volunteer club with a military vehicle club and I really wanted to get um a vehicle that I could in turn restore and I headed toward the Korean War 50s era because my grandfather served during the World War II and Korea. So I kind of went in that direction, my dad served early 60s which uh he was during the Cuban Missile Crisis he served at Homestead Air Force Base. So the vehicle itself is pretty interesting it was '55 and it had- one of the things that I didn't want to do is was restore it to museum quality because I don't want to replace every part... so I left as much original and if it breaks I replace it. But you could see the markings of a Air Force Jeep and so it was perfect with my dad serving in the Air Force as a police officer, security officer that I kind of went in that direction and then I was a big fan of the uh Mercury astronauts, the space race, and the Strategic Air Command was a big part of the 50s so the Jeep sort of fell into that place and went into that direction and followed the same markings that my dad had on his base. They had yellow pinstriping they had the the sedans had all the gloss strata blue. That would be my father's supervisor's number that I found on the YouTube site. He had a wagon that was in blue and I've kept all the original Cooper tires part of when I purchased it. This was never overseas it was basically um a base Jeep here in the states. One of the things that was really cool is I had a little liberty with the research to kind of mix a lot of the images that you see from all these different Cold War blue Jeeps on bases with the lights and some of them had the flashing lights out on the bumper but I just really had- really had a lot of fun restoring it.
Everybody knows the military police but there actually was an AP air police which this was late 40s when they became U.S Air Force in 1947, they really wanted to modernize so they went with a lot of blue and a lot of tech and jets and um uniforms early on were in blue. This is from '53. So they kind of went like ultra modern at the period and um the air police existed to about the mid 60s, and then they started went back to security police or security forces.
Gear all went into the Blues like all of that changed into more of a blue material so they kind of kept a little bit of the World War II clothing but they sort of tried to modernize it. The Jeep itself runs really well it's an F-124 hurricane engine from Willys. The data plate is still, yeah, on there, the original data plate on this.
What can you tell us, so like can I can tell just looking at the body, but what was the condition when you got it? It was basically in really good condition um although it was it had a really bad OD paint layer over it. Okay. Very little rust but it was really banged up. Yeah a lot of usage markings and indentations so had it professionally painted and they smoothed a lot of that out. A lot of it's still behind there because they bonded it but the inside, if you look at it, it's pretty raw. Yep. I didn't want to, I didn't want to lose that kind of old motor pool look. Yeah. All of that's still fairly raw, and some of it isn't restored to perfect tech specs but I don't care, Right. It's really um for people to enjoy, pile in and take photos.
Yeah so that's something I'd to mention, like we just got done he lets you can see all the props and stuff he's got here in the helmets everything. So we have hats and helmets for the kids to wear to kind of get some period pile in. I had the Marine group um kids all pile in for great photos. Yeah, it was awesome yeah. I kind of added a little bit more to it to give a little bit more kick, but that is actually 1960s fire truck issue beacon, so I didn't want to want to get into a lot of sirens and noises but um that's original.
What about the wheels? Can you tell us anything about these wheels?... It actually is interesting because they're not original to the vehicle when I bought the vehicle they were the M151 mutt. Yeah that's what I was like these look like, yeah. So I didn't know that when I bought it right, I fell in love with them. I get a lot of slack for that. People say those aren't original they should be changed however, when this is moving down the road and we've got all this going on, again my original intent was for AG display. I didn't really get into this level when I first got the Jeep you know, drive to Starbuck, ride around town. So I fell in love with those wheels and I don't want to change them because when they're moving that around they look really really cool. So, not being the museum quality, that doesn't really motivate me right? It's really to teach history, get people excited about the Jeep culture, about the history of military Jeeps... just enjoy it.
And what about, so if people want to find out more information about code blue where can they go? We have a site that you can find follow and it just started about six months ago it's called The Code Blue Collective. And it teaches you the Jeep is a mascot for Cold War history from late 50s I mean late 40s to probably the 80s. Yeah. It just really brings a lot of technology, things have happened. Current issues might come in but I haven't really gone there yet I've been trying to say- and we'll bring in um- One of the things I'm doing now is I'm founding Cold War toys, Jeeps military vehicles I'm starting to create a display that um, started let's see a little bit here we're um we're trying to create a little bit more interest too and there were period times where they, where these are- this is from the 60s that's more modern but that's the tomcat and um I don't have him here at this moment but I've got a lot of really cool pieces and and I've got even old 50s uh Cold War life magazines the things that I'm really trying to get people interested in whatever interest them in the history through the uh display.
We're having a lot of fun yeah period this is all original and hopefully getting people excited about the Air Force development of what the past was and what the future will be. This is really I have a World War II section to kind of start the process because most people relate to World War II, right? So this gives me a chance to take from what might have been like late 30s technology of leather in a matter of 10 - 15 years it went to this. This is the Nomex? It went yeah, well not Nomex itself, they didn't have that. Okay. But this is 1953. Okay. And so people think, okay from World War II to Korea, right, there's no middle. it really is. Yeah.
That's really the mission is to have a lot of fun with it. Sure. And um drive the Jeep when I when I can.
All right, I think that should be it. We just thank you guys for watching and come check out code blue. Um you guys know it's got a website and such you can find them and thanks for watching.
