A Red Letter Day:
Monday, January 20, 2025 was an interesting day at the Museum. It saw the return to functional condition of one of the more unusual artifacts in our collection – a U.S. Coast Guard Jeep. Many of you have probably seen it in the Museum's lobby during your visit, but on this particular Monday - right after lunch - it drove out the back doors onto the ramp; almost three years to the day after it first arrived here!
Volunteer John Zumwalt was responsible for returning the Jeep to running condition. With him at the controls, the Jeep made a few laps around the ramp. Confident that everything was in working order, Zumwalt took it on a lap around the property; then a second lap down to the runway intersection. Many years have elapsed since the Jeep last ran, and all of us at the Museum are thrilled to see it driving again!
Zumwalt noted that there are still a few remaining details he needs to complete on the Jeep. However, with all of the excitement which surrounds such a significant milestone, we wanted to share the unusual story of how we came to possess this Jeep in the first place - and how it became a key artifact for our exhibit about the 'Coasties' in WWII in our Museum's Lobby.
Part of the display celebrating the various roles important which the U.S. Coast Guard played during WWII. Did you know, for instance, that a US Coast Guard cutter played a key role in hunting down the feared German battleship Bismarck in 1941, or that an alert Coast Guard patrolman helped foil a German saboutage plot in the US North East? Come to the museum to find out more!
A WWII-era program for a musical review dedicated to the 'Tars and Spars', the men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard.
US Coast Guard vessels were amongst those caught in the action at Pearl Harbor on that 'day of infamy' in December, 1941.
A piece of vintage WWII jewelery celebrating the U.S. Coast Guard. These items, often referred to as "Sweetheart Pins" were typically worn by the girlfriends and wives of serving Coast Guard personnel.
A publicity shot of a US Coast Guard Jeep on patrol during WWII.
A WWII-era stamp encouraging women to join the SPARS, a female element within the US Coast Guard during WWII. This is one of several period artifacts in the exhibit "High Seas and the Homefront: The Coast Guard in WWII" in the Museum's lobby.
An display item in the exhibit describes the threat which German U-Boats posed to Allied shipping along the U.S. East Coast.
The Grumman J4F Widgeon served in the U.S. Coast Guard during WWII. This is a period manufacturer's advertisement celebrating the type's entry into Coast Guard service.
How We Acquired the Jeep:
The story, as it pertains to us, began when Stephen Goldhammer visited our Museum in mid-July 2021. Like many of you, he took the tour around the property with Mike “Quickdraw” McGraw, one of our fine volunteer docents. When they finished the tour, Goldhammer shared with us how the Coast Guard Aviation Association (formerly the Ancient Order of the Pterodactyl) was seeking to re-home a WWII-era Willys Jeep which had been restored by one of their members, ASM2 Buck Alan Parham.
The CGAA had acquired the Jeep as a bequest from Parham’s estate following his death in July, 2011. At that time, Cecil Loter, a Coast Guard Aviator, launched one of the more unusual SAR (Search and Rescue) missions of his career, traveling with a trailer to Ogden, Utah where he picked up the Jeep from Parham's former home, and moved it to Sacramento for display in the California Aerospace Museum. However, by 2021, that museum no longer wanted the Jeep and returned it to the CGAA so they could find a better home for this cherished vehicle... and they could not have found a better place for it than the Military Aviation Museum!
A Herculean Effort!
The Museum accepted the Jeep's donation gladly, albeit with several important conditions – one being that it must always be represented as a WWII Coast Guard Jeep. After signing this agreement, one of the most amazing things I have witnessed in my career unfolded; the Coast Guard community, both active duty and retired, banded together to bring the Jeep here to the Museum.
This included arranging for a Coast Guard transport to fly the Jeep to the East Coast all the way from Sacramento, California. To justify such a flight, it obviously had to coincide with aircraft availability and cargo capacity on a previously arranged journey. As it happened, a Coast Guard C-130 Hercules was already scheduled to fly from Coast Guard Air Station (CGAS) Barbers Point, Hawaii to CGAS Elizabeth City, North Carolina for a planned overhaul in early 2022. With room in its cargo hold and needing to alight in California to refuel, the Hercules could easily stop in Sacramento to pick up the Jeep for the trip east without any meaningful diversion from its already intended route. All the Museum had to do to complete the mission was send some of our personnel down to Elizabeth City to pick up the Jeep once it arrived. So, on January 21st, 2022, Lockheed HC-130H Hercules CGNR 1720 arrived at Elizabeth City with our newly acquired Jeep aboard. Oddly, however, this turned out to be 1720's final mission. For reasons unknown to us, the Coast Guard deemed the Herc' as surplus to requirements sometime after its arrival in North Carolina, so rather than overhaul the airframe, they stripped it of any useful components and scrapped what remained in 2023.
But I digress, our team collected the Jeep amidst a fairly intense ice storm on January 24th, 2022 and returned it to the Museum. It made its debut alongside the exhibit High Seas and the Homefront: The Coast Guard in WWII soon after, and has been much admired ever since.
The Jeep about to be offloaded from the Coast Guard Hercules in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.
Rolling ASM2 Parham's out of the Coast Guard Hercules in January, 2022. This aircraft, HC-130H 1720, was parted out later that year, with the remainder being scrapped in 2023.
Unhooking the cable from the front of the Jeep after the vehicle had been rolled down the Hercules's ramp in January 2022.
Buck Parham's Story:
As we later found out when learning of Buck Parham's life in the Coast Guard, it was especially fitting that an aircraft from Barbers Point assisted in the Jeep's delivery to the Museum. CGAS Barbers Point had been Buck Parham’s first duty station as a newly-minted Coast Guard Seaman Apprentice in October, 1974. Earlier that year, he had undergone basic training at the Coast Guard Training Center in Alameda, California. By the time Parham moved to his next duty station at CGAS San Deigo as an Aviation Survivalman (ASM) Third Class, he was set to take part in the Coast Guard's activities related to enforcing the Fisheries Conservation & Management Act (1976) which required the Coast Guard (in concert with the National Marine Fisheries Service) to patrol the 200 mile exclusion zone along the nation's shores to counter any potentially illicit activities by foreign fishing vessels. In his role as an ASM, Parham likely assisted with the packing of parachutes and maintaining survival equipment. ASMs also worked as aircrew on some of the Coast Guard’s aircraft, although we do not know exactly what Parham’s service entailed. Following his enlistment, Parham continued his involvement with aviation. He lived in the Sacramento area for much of the 1980s and 90s, gaining a commission in the U.S. Air Force reserves during this time, most likely at McClellan Air Force Base (which closed in 1995 to become Sacramento-McClellan Airport). While in the Air Force Reserve, 2nd Lt Parham is known to have served in (or over) Iraq in some capacity, likely during the first Gulf War.
The Jeep:
Despite being in the Air Force Reserve, Parham's soft spot for the Coast Guard must have remained strong because, during his spare time, he restored the Willys Jeep to represent one which served in the U.S. Coast Guard during WWII. For a personal touch, he reportedly painted his own Coast Guard service number on the Jeep's hood where the actual vehicle service number would normally go. As for the Jeep itself, while the replacement data plate remains unstamped, some of the material which came with it was stamped with the serial number 103826, which suggests that the vehicle was built for the U.S. Army in 1941. We would love to learn more if anyone can help us here.
The Pteros (from Pterodactyl) shared with us that this Jeep came into their care following Parham’s passing from ALS, when he was just 55. Parham is buried in the Elm Grove Cherokee Cemetery in Rose, Oklahoma, the same graveyard where his mother Sue and great grandfather, John Ellis "Red Cloud" Duncan, last High Sheriff of the Cherokee Nation, also lie. Buck's father, Lloyd Lee Parham, told the Pteros that his son’s last wish was for his beloved Jeep to find its way into a museum. And as Buck had hoped, his Jeep is indeed in a Museum, helping share the story of those men who patrolled the coast during World War II. It is also a testament to Buck's own military service and his dedication to the memories of those who went before him.
A popular exhibit with guests, much work on the jeep actually took place amidst the exhibit materials in the lobby so that it could remain on display during the restoration process. We were honored then to be selected as the home for this Jeep, and even more proud now that ASM2 Buck Parham’s jeep is running again, and able to drive around the Museum. There is still some work to be done, but look for this Jeep in a local parade sometime soon!
Reportedly, ASM2 Buck Parham painted his own Coast Guard service number "416176" to represent the vehicle's serial number on the Jeep's hood.
A view of the Jeep's front seats and dash board.
With the vehicle's original data placards likely pinched or perhaps damaged beyond repair by the time he got to work on the Jeep, ASM2 Buck Parham replaced them with replicas, choosing to leave the entries blank.
