Convoy of military antiques rolls across the island

Bicycles, tanks and desert dune buggies equipped with 50-caliber machine guns. These are all collector’s items for members of the Western Command Military Historical Society of Vancouver, B.C and the Puget Sound Military Vehicle Collectors Club of Seattle.

On Saturday, members from the two clubs rolled through the roads of Whidbey Island in their “steel veterans” for a military convoy.

“We rescue, research and restore military vehicles in honor of veterans past, present and future,” said Keith Dewey, owner of a 1942 military Ford.

The club members can be better described as history fanatics. Their curiosity for old military vehicles is also a mechanic’s dream: Members bought or acquired vehicles from World War II, the Korean Conflict and the Vietnam War and repaired them to be fully functioning and safe for the roads.

While the vehicles are usually given thumbs ups or waved to by onlookers in public, Karen Gossage, owner of a 1967 Kaiser Jeep ambulance, shared how she and her husband’s Jeep once received the coveted rubber duck, which is a symbol of positivity among Jeep lovers.

Wherever you go, you are a parade, the members enthused.

When reflecting on how they got into collecting, Harry Moon, a 1992 Humvee truck owner, said he still gets choked up over the memory. During a drive, a man stopped him to tell him the story of a loss of a friend who served in WWII. The man’s wife later shared that her husband had never opened up about that in all of the years they were married.

“After that, I was unreserved about preserving these vehicles,” Moon said.

It creates an automatic connection with others, the members explained; people see the vehicles, and it opens them up to conversations and stories. The members share their passions with all who are interested, sometimes offering rides and other times sharing information.

“I try to steer (young) people towards books, history books that follow those interests,” Moon said. “You get young people hooked on books and history and they’ll stay out of trouble. “

Although there are many negative outcomes to war, the club members shared their appreciation for the innovation that comes out of war. Ambulances, fire trucks and all kinds of things grew from war, the members explained.

“The world’s changing, and I think people want to hide history, to reshape history. These objects, they don’t change. They don’t change and they represent a piece of history that some people want to hide and pretend it didn’t exist,” Moon said.

Club members meet several times a year, often over Zoom. All are welcome, no matter if they own a vehicle or not. The purpose of the meetings are to connect with other military vehicle lovers, troubleshoot issues together, gather mechanical information, find parts that are needed and more. Though a common misconception about military vehicle owners is that they all have served in the military, not everyone has served and they do not try to fake it, Gossage explained.

“I’m excited to do something with like-minded individuals,” Bradley Dodd, owner of a 1966 Kaiser Jeep M35 A2, said before Saturday’s convoy. “It’s just nice to finally be in a group and not just out there doing it on my own.”

As they prepared to embark on their convoy, the members reminisced about past shows they’ve done, from the fire department filling a member’s five-ton truck with water for people to float in with innertubes, “like a redneck hot tub,” they laughed, to strangers asking for rides and telling them their sentimental war stories.