Kind of gives new meaning to ‘only in a jeep’.
http://cbi-theater-1.home.comcast.net/~cbi-theater-1/roundup/roundup091444.html
CBI G.I. HOPED JEEP COULD FLY
By Sgt. ART HEENAN
Roundup Staff Writer
The British had known all along that Americans believed the jeep could do anything except fly, but it remained for T/5 Jack E. Graham, now in the CBI, to show our Allies that Yank belief amounts to more than verbal tribute.
Graham did it by trying to climb the highest pyramid in Egypt aboard a jeep. He never got to the top, but that wasn’t his fault.
Graham says he was attached to an Ordnance unit that trailed the Eighth Army, repairing salvaged battlefield equipment. He and three of his buddies had seized a new jeep abandoned by the Heinies in their retreat. (“The British called us ‘American Gurkhas,’ because we were all from Texas,” explains Graham.)
He and his compatriots were sitting around camp one night, listening to a British broadcast and downing Egyptian jingbao juice. Over the air came a statement that the Eighth Army had a man who had driven a golf ball over the pyramids.
“We decided if the British could drive a golf ball over the pyramids, we could drive a jeep over,” recounts Graham. “So we set out to prove it.”
The “Yank Gurkhas” had no trouble finding the pyramids. They successfully maneuvered the jeep through the corridor in the center of the Sphinx and prepared to mount what they judged to be the highest pyramid. Graham remained at the wheel and the other adventurers piled out and began to bank the steps with sand so the wheels could get some purchase.
The jeep and the 200 pounds of chubby-like Graham had actually gotten up three of the steps when British GMP’s arrived on the scene. When the astounded Britishers found out what the Yanks contemplated, they withdrew and held a conference. The G.I.’s merrily returned to their pyramid project.
“But the British sergeant came back.” sorrowfully explains Graham. “He told me, ‘Sorry, Yank, but you can’t climb the blinkin’ pyramid, you know. It’s not official business.'”
When Graham’s C.O. heard of the incident, S/Sgt. Graham became Pvt. Graham – and he also lost his jeep.
Graham plans to take advantage of Congressional promises that G.I.’s will have priority on purchasing jeeps after the war.
“Might get back to Egypt at that and climb that blankety-blank pyramid,” he says.