The “Heirloom” M38A1 now belongs to us, The Honchell Family in Mount Carroll, IL. This 1952 Willys-Overland was owned by John C. Needles, USAF (ret) from 1955-2001 (restored by him, 1994-2001). This Jeep was my Uncle Jack’s from 1955 until his passing in 2001. Uncle Jack, John C. Needles, USAF (retired) served with the USAAF/USAF for 31 years from 1944-1975, and worked for the State of Indiana heading up its Medicaid Fraud & Abuse Department until he finally retired (again!) in the early 90’s…and that is when he finally had time to restore his Jeep that had been held together by rust & love, patched-up, beat-to-hell and so on over the decades. It had been painted many times, like 3 or 4 over the years, had seat belts, key start, civilian CJ top and a HUGE aftermarket heater that replaced the back seat when installed. All of this was swept away and over 7 years of patient work… Jack took it down to the frame and put everything back to correct military 1952 configuration… except the larger CJ-5 10″ brakes which he felt were a needed improvement that should stay… so those remain.
At the same time his younger brother, my Uncle Gene (now age 92) had also retired as a full-time Iowa Circuit Court Judge (going on the part-time “Senior Judge” track, filling in a few weeks here and there for vacationing judges) and had the time to help him find a donor Jeep at auction with a solid, rust free body tub. They found one at auction in Nebraska… a rural fire service/forestry Jeep with a very solid body tub and still in running condition. So the two brothers hauled the “donor” Jeep back to Jack’s home just South of Indianapolis, IND. And Uncle Jack went to work on his project… while also taking care of our most-beloved Aunt Yoshiko who was, apart from being a remarkable woman of incredible beauty, intelligence and love; the first-ever liver transplant patient of Asian ancestry (and in her case… birth as well!) in the United States. Aunt Yoshiko received her liver transplant at the University of Chicago Hospitals, 3 August 1986. They made her sign away “the movie rights” as they would film the operation for later study. I was 15 years old, with my Uncle Jack at the hospital that long day/night. Uncle Jack was my Godfather, too. My Dad passed when I was 6 years old from a massive heart attack… but there was a contingency plan named “Uncle Jack”; and what I know of manhood and everything else after age 6 I learned from him. Being without children, I was about the closest thing that he and Aunt Yoshi had to a son as well.
In June of 1996 my working-year as a school teacher was almost over, I was computing students’ final grades when I got the call that Uncle Jack had suffered a severe heart attack. Pre-internet days for me, I threw my computer and printer, student papers into a duffel bag and left NW Illinois for Indianapolis. About four hours later I was at my Uncle’s bedside in the hospital… he took my hand and in a weak voice uncharacteristic of the strong man I loved & adored he said, “Son-your Aunt can’t stay in that big house all by herself.” Then he said… (no joke!) “Hey.. and I’ve got some parts for the Jeep being sandblasted in Brownsberg (the 3 pedals)… and that body tub from the other Jeep is being prepped & primed here in town (Avon, Ind). So from his hospital bedside I went to his & Aunt Yoshi’s house for the first time that day. When I arrived I didn’t know what to make of what I was seeing; outside the attached garage (where his Jeep would be) was what appeared at first glance to be a fully-intact, OD painted, M38A1. This is when I first saw the “parts Jeep” after Uncle Jack had decided that he would graft the rusted-out body tub of his Jeep, after repairs—which he took a welding class and did himself—and after it had been made structurally sound–replaced on the “parts Jeep” frame. The whole thing was a nice OD green, with new seat covers (he had extra) and other parts he had accumulated as spares for his Jeep over the decades. So the parts Jeep becomes the Jeep he gave to his younger brother Gene. After this, years later, Uncle Gene pulled the engine, trans, & transfer of this Jeep and had them re-built and then re-installed them himself; he was in his early 80’s himself at this point. This Jeep is now near him in Minneapolis where he resides with Aunt Kathy, close to their daughter Colleen. The “Donor/Parts Jeep” is now in one of the outbuildings on Colleen’s property and Uncle Gene is hopeful that her son Jack will get it running again soon!
The heart attack that might have killed a man of lesser will (it was described as being 3x what usually kills a man) didn’t take John C. Needles. He recovered, did rehab… and always credited his neighbor & friend—fellow Korean Conflict Vet Dallas Wampler for having saved him; Dallas saw how John looked in his garage, ashen and faint, and just put him in his car and took him to the local ER.
Uncle Jack lived long enough to take his Jeep’s restoration to near-completion. In early 2001 he was dying from terminal lung cancer, chemo and radiation tried and failed… and so on. I got to Indy as often as I could during those last days… so did Uncle Gene. So did everyone. One day in the early Spring of 2001 Uncle Jack walked without speaking to the garage and I followed. I remembered then that I had told my wife Amanda that he wasn’t ready to die yet… because he had not yet put the numbers on his Jeep. He moved things off the Jeep, detached the battery “exerciser”, got in… and started the thing… saying, “get in”. So for the first time in 2 decades, for the last time, I was a passenger in his Jeep with him at the wheel. I might have been 10 years-old again, excited to be going to the fishing hole up the road with my Uncle in his Jeep! He drove around his neighborhood… everyone waiving to him, him honking the horn in return. We arrived at a gas station and put a few gallons in. Then we went back to his garage… him reminding me; “You REALLY have to be careful how you drive these things.” He parked the Jeep in the garage… said to me, “I haven’t got the numbers on yet!”… as if he knew somehow what I had said to my wife Amanda. When he dismounted his Jeep for the last time… I was luckily beside him hold him up when he started to go faint from lack of oxygen—he hadn’t brought it with. He passed June 14th, 2001. And so the Jeep passed to me.
Kaiser Willys Jeep Blog Story – The Honchell Family
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Namaskar,
Incredible story of grit, determination and live
Nice story. You thought about your uncle. He done a nice job on the jeep.
A very heartfelt story, and beautiful rebuild job, soon to be two rebuilds… Best in the future to you and your family!.
Thank you