Regarding last week’s article related to Dan Stark’s WWII Jeep, he is quoted as saying that “There were so many (Jeeps) built in the time of war, but so few are still around.” [“Malibu resident drives 1943 war jeep to Agoura Hills,” published April 18]
My research indicates that the term “many” can be defined as follows: by the end of the war, more than 600,000 jeeps had rolled off the Willys and Ford assembly lines. One account I read referred to the development of the four-wheel drive Jeep vehicle as an “icon” of military support.
It is important to note that many of these Jeeps were assembled by women. Before the war was over, more than six million women worked in factories building jeeps, planes, tanks, bombs, and other weapons. As a result of the war, both with women serving in the military and the jobs that they were “forced” to take at home because of the shortage of men, the stereotype of women’s role in society for generations was changed forever!
Norman Fischer