Virginia Beach veteran makes childhood dream come true with a World War II-era Jeep

As a young naval aviator with the Red Rippers VFA 11 squadron at Oceana, Darrell Nolen had a propensity for doing just about anything he could think of when his squadron was on cruise. His wild antics quickly earned him the call sign Mad Dog.

Over the decades that followed, Nolen’s behavior changed dramatically. He has calmed down and no longer really deserves the Mad Dog designation. He is highly respected by his neighbors and a rock-solid pillar of his community.

Inspired by watching “Rat Patrol” and “Adventures in Paradise,” one thing that never changed was Nolen’s childhood dream of owning a vintage World War II Jeep. Nolen finally made his youthful fantasy come true in 2010.

“I will say that having the Jeep is like the fulfillment of a boyhood dream. Every kid has their boyhood dreams,” the Virginia Beach resident said. “I was able in retirement to afford it and make it happen.”

Nolen wanted an early model Ford GPW Jeep that needed very little work to restore it to make it fully operational. After an extensive and selective search, he finally found exactly what he was seeking – a 1942 Ford GPW Jeep.

“I’m not a mechanic so I didn’t want to do a whole lot of restoration work,” he said. “That was the main reason I bought this particular one, serial number 5267.”

Bob Purdy, a retired Marine, sold the 1942 vintage Jeep to Nolen. Purdy provided Nolen with an interesting and detailed account of the vehicle’s unique history.

“It was assigned to a railroad repair battalion in Alaska during World War II,” said Nolen. “It was sold as surplus in 1946 to a family that was originally from New Hampshire.”

The family that bought it as surplus used it as a family car for 30 years. In 1976, the family decided to leave Alaska and drive the Jeep back home to New Hampshire. They initially planned to drive it all the way home. They broke down along the ALCAN Highway. The family patriarch left his wife, two kids, his dog and his pistol while he hitchhiked into Calgary to buy the part he needed to get the old Jeep running. He did get the Jeep running again and drove down to Calgary where he called his wife’s family. They drove a Cadillac to Calgary and towed the Jeep all the way back to New Hampshire where it was used as a hunting vehicle and to run a saw mill off the rear wheel.

In the early 1980s, the Jeep was restored to its present condition. Purdy, who was also from New Hampshire, took the Jeep to Camp Lejeune for a while. When Purdy retired, he took his Jeep back to New Hampshire.

“He kept it there for many years until he was ready to sell it to me in 2010. He was a senior non-commissioned officer at the time he retired as an E-8,” said Nolen. “When you think of the symbols of World War II, the Jeep is right at the top along with the Sherman tank. They are the most highly recognizable vehicles from World War II.”

The World War II era military Jeep had a reputation for ruggedness, durability and ease of repair. The average farm boy mechanic could repair it with ease. After the war, veterans scrambled to purchase surplus vehicles because of their utility and reliability.

“The motor in the Jeep is a little 4-cylinder Go Devil engine. It’s supposedly rated at 60 horsepower. I sometimes question that. It has a top speed of something like 50 miles per hour,” said Nolen. “I never drive mine more than 35 miles per hour because it sounds like the engine’s going to come apart once you start going over 35.”

It had combat rims – split rims – so a tire changing tool was not necessary. The two halves of the wheel rim were unbolted like a clam shell and the tire would fall off the wheel. The wheel halves could easily be bolted back together, the tire inflated, and the vehicle was “good to go.”

Although Nolen has had to replace the battery from time to time, his Jeep has been almost maintenance free – relatively speaking.

“The only real repair that I’ve done on the Jeep is that I had to replace the fuel pump. That was a really easy fix,” said Nolen. “It was a 20-minute repair. Unbolting it, bolting the new one in, and hooking it up again. It was really easy.”

He’s also had the brakes rebuilt by a professional mechanic. He didn’t want to do that job himself. “I didn’t want to do that. Brakes are particularly important. If the brakes fail, you’ve got a problem,” he observed. “Those are the only two things that I’ve had to do over the ten years that I’ve owned it.”

When the Jeep was restored in the 1980s, the odometer was reset to zero. Currently, the instrument shows between 6,000 and 7,000 miles. Nolen hasn’t put much mileage on it for practical reasons. He prefers trailering the Jeep to get to events rather than contending with modern traffic at highway speeds. When he drives to events, it’s usually a short distance via the back roads where driving 35 miles per hour is considerably less dangerous.

Modern companies produce every part that a restorer would ever need to rebuild the Jeep. New and rebuilt engines are available. New transmissions can be purchased. Every nut and bolt is available from a variety of restoration outfits.

“The parts are not hard to get. Some of them are pretty expensive. You could build a brand-new Jeep from the available parts,” said Nolen. “There are companies that build the bodies, the tubs. There are panels that you can weld in if you have any kind of rust problems.”

Fortunately, Nolen has had no rust problems with his vintage vehicle – so far. He particularly admires the enthusiasts who completely strip down the “old rust buckets” and restore them to their original glory.

When Nolen drives his vintage ride through the neighborhood, he definitely gets noticed – very favorably. Nolen loves sharing his Jeep with his neighbors.

“It just brings smiles to peoples’ faces. People wave. People who have modern Jeeps want to stop and talk,” Nolen said. “When I’m filling it up with gas at a filling station, it’s hard to get away from the station. When I take it to parades, air shows, or car shows, people just crowd around and want to talk. They want to have their pictures taken.”

Unfortunately, most of the World War II veterans are too old or infirm to climb into a Jeep and ride in it. Nolen had always hoped to get his Jeep home to his family’s farm in Floyd County in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western Virginia to ride in a local parade with his father. That part of his dream never happened.

Nolen’s dad was a World War II sailor who had actually looked for a surplus Jeep to buy after World War II. He was unable to find one. Some of the Nolen’s neighbors had surplus Jeeps. They used them for various purposes. Some were used to pull farm machinery like hay rakes.

“That had something to do with my desire to own a Jeep. My dad was never able to find one,” said Nolen. “I wanted to take it home for the Christmas parade. It’s always a big thing. I thought it would be a nice thing for my dad. By the time I’d gotten the Jeep, he was too infirm to climb into it.”

When Nolen started checking out Jeep advertisements in Hemmings Motor News, his wife “sort of tolerated” his queries as a quirk. He found the 1942 Ford GPW and started talking to her in a more serious way. She was resistant at first, but finally told him to “Go buy that Jeep.”

“So I did,” said Nolen. “Since I brought it home, she’s become a really big fan. She actually loves to ride in it as much as I do when we drive it through the neighborhood.”

During a Veterans Day parade in Virginia Beach, his wife Mary got involved in a little living history while riding in the Jeep. Dressed as a World War II French resistance fighter – complete with beret – she stood in the back of the Jeep with Nolen’s replica of a 50-caliber machine gun.

“Driving the Jeep is a little awkward for her, shifting the gears and doing it smoothly,” noted Nolen. “It doesn’t have a synchromesh transmission and it’s a little touchy for people who are not used to it.”

Nolen has a vision, an unfulfilled element of his boyhood dreams. He sees himself driving his Jeep during a future D-Day anniversary event, perhaps at Little Creek, onto the beach from one of the landing craft, LCMs, that are used by the Navy as service boats. “I hope someone sets that up,” said Nolen.

Some of the older guys in a club Nolen belongs to, the Military Vehicles Preservation Society, have a step stool that they place alongside the Jeep. When they’re in the parades, they’ll put that in the Jeep. While Nolen concedes that he may eventually have to employ a step stool to board his Jeep, he maintains that he is not yet in need of that extra piece of equipment.

Darrell Nolen has no intention of ever selling his vintage treasure. He plans to hang on to it indefinitely and continue to enjoy driving it regularly – until they pry his fingers from the steering wheel.

“It’s probably selfish, but I don’t think anybody can appreciate the Jeep more than I do,” said Nolen. “My wife says that I’ll be buried in it. They’ll dig a big hole in the ground and bury me in it.”