Chattanooga Times reporter Marion Coleman wrote a piece on jeep tagging in July of 1943, which was then syndicated to at least one newspaper, appearing in the Key West Citizen on July 20, 1943, under the title “Tagging a Jeep”. The problem is that the scan is horrible. Moreover, I can’t find any other copy of the article nor are the Chattanooga News-Free Press archives online, which is where I suspect it was also published.

The reason I found the article interesting is that she underscores the primary purpose of naming (or tagging) a jeep wasn’t for sentimental/inspirational reasons. Instead, it was so drivers could identify their individual jeeps. Given drivers were responsible for their jeeps, creatively marking their jeeps was one way of safe-guarding them. Of course, snagging the distributor when parked was another way to help keep it from being stolen.

I suspect the only way to get a good copy of the article is to visit the local library in either state, which likely won’t be happening anytime soon!

Terrible online scan from the July 20, 1943, issue of the Key West Citizen.