[Editor’s note: since original publication of the below story in our November 2023 newsletter, members of the Post and Auxiliary submitted names to the Jeep Committee and by May 2024 the name Annabelle had been selected as the favorite.]
VFW Life Member and Vietnam veteran Jack Pusel, wearing his Navy Blues, stands beside his 1957 Jeep, refurbished to include military elements. It was once owned by Dale E. Kelly, a U.S. Marine who served in World War II – and served as a major influence in Pusel’s life.
It had been years since Jack laid eyes on the Jeep he grew up with – the 1957 Willys originally owned by Kelly, who had the honor of driving Gen. George S. Patton around a number of times.
“After Kelly died they were going through his records,” Pusel said. “They found some stuff that Patton had written and also found he never told me that he had a Purple Heart.” They fished together – a lot. Pusel looked up to him. Kelly was so close to Pusel, himself a veteran, that he called Kelly “uncle.”
The old jeep looked much different in 2009 when Pusel purchased her from his aunt in hopes of refurbishing it in honor of his family who served in the military. Several wars and a few generations later, Pusel wanted the jeep for his own. It would be neat to restore it, he thought.
“I told my aunt what I wanted to do with it. I had to buy it from her,” Pusel said.
Pusel, who served in the Navy during the Vietnam War, wanted the jeep to serve as a way to honor his father, nine uncles and eight cousins who served in the military, including the Purple Heart-bestowed “uncle” who originally had the jeep.
To be sure, the jeep had seen some rough miles, rumbling through the pear and apple orchards of the Wenatchee River Valley, season after season. It was likely a little worse for wear, but Pusel was not prepared for what he saw that day in 2009.
“It was in terrible shape,” Pusel remembered, shaking his head. “The windshield was all busted out. There wasn’t a straight piece of metal on it.”
By the time Pusel purchased the jeep in 2009, the old Willeys was a shell of its former self, having worked in orchards in Washington state, among other adventures.
Despite its condition, Pusel wanted the jeep. It didn’t go easily, he said. “In order to get it loaded my buddy and I used his pickup and his trailer. We took the hood off and I had to stand there and pour gasoline in the carburetor to get it started, then stand there as he drove it up onto the trailer, pouring gas into the carburetor to get it up on the trailer.”
Pusel said he wasn’t a “body person,” but knew his way around a vehicle, having been a retired fleet mechanic. “I got home and I just started. I started restoring every bit of it myself to take all the dents out. I put the new bumper on the front and so I could put flags in it… just did everything – restored it all, totally.”
That included engine work and putting in a new radiator. Back in the day, the jeep had a hand-cranked windshield wiper, so Pusel put in a more modern mechanical one on the driver’s side.
He converted the jeep’s electrical system from six volts to 12. “I wanted to put a CD player in; they didn’t have CD players during the war,” Pusel said, chuckling. “When I’m in parades I play patriotic music.”
Fast forward 10 years to find the jeep restored, its adventures now consisting of car shows and parades.
Pusel’s “Shore Patrol” jeep is now a shiny, creamy gray with subtle white military stars, topped with a genuine military tarp he found in California. The vintage vehicle has a World War II siren, given to him by his American Legion commander in Washington state, a POW/MIA flag and, of course, an American flag.
Restored from near ruin into a patriotic relic that has motored in many a parade, and gets proudly displayed at car shows.
In 2021, Jack and his wife, Nadine, made the decisions to sell their house and surrounding orchards in Monitor, Washington so they could be near their family in Grand Isle, Nebraska. About this same time, Jack was contemplating what the future would hold for the little jeep he so lovingly restored. Not sure how much longer he could manage the work load it took to maintain the jeep and travel to car shows and patriotic events, Jack began to look for a new home.
In conversation with our Quartermaster, Dave Schwab, Jack really wanted the Jeep to continue its new mission of bringing light to and honoring a long line of family members that served and sacrificed in the military. He could always put it up for sale to the public, but then the backstory and family history would be lost. He wanted the Jeep to continue in its present role.
In 2022 after several months of deliberation, Jack decided to donate the Jeep and accompanying transport trailer to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. But, he wanted to keep his pride and joy for one last round on the car show circuit in Nebraska and to drive her in their last parade together on Veteran’s Day.
In July of this year, the ‘57 Willys Shore Patrol Jeep was secured to her transport trailer in Grand Isle and headed west to Montana to meet the Wenatchee Valley VFW team which traveled east to meet them. At Billings, the group met up to make the transfer. Our Post Jeep Team is headed up by our lead mechanics for the project, Dave Schwab and Don Dent. After going over the Jeep for one last time to share her idiosyncrasies, Jack bid her farewell and headed back to Nebraska knowing she was in good hands.
Back in Wenatchee, the “Jeep Committee” was busy getting the vehicle titles changed, finding insurance for the package, and locating a storage location. By late August, everything was in place for the first of many Jeep events. The inaugural outing was at the North Central Washington Fair at Waterville on August 26 where the Shore Patrol Jeep was an automatic eye-catcher and facilitated a great way to meet veterans and their families. Since then, the Jeep has made several other appearances at parades and patriotic events with many more events planned in the future.
All of this was made possible by the trust and generosity of Jack Pusel. It is his vision that the Jeep will continue into the future, acting as testament to his family’s strong military service and sacrifice. This vision also includes the Jeep acting as a beacon for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, calling out to military veterans to check out the little gray jeep while providing an opportunity to have a conversation with them about their earned VA benefits they may not know about.
Thank you Jack for this incredible gift and the opportunity to share its history. Beep! Beep! We have a Jeep!
(Portions of this story were taken from an article written by Jessica Votipka of the Grand Isle Independent newspaper on 2/20/2023).
