in 1961, President Kennedy signed the Peace Corps Executive Order. Since then, over 1/4 million volunteers have served around the world. Given the rough conditions, especially in the early days, jeeps were a natural fit for the volunteers heading to remote areas. Folks were even trained on how to used jeeps as a part of their introduction to the Peace Corps.
There seems to have been a wide variety of jeeps used by the Peace Corps. How the jeeps were obtained isn’t clear, but at least some in 1965 were donated by Oakland Motor Sales. I imagine the military versions, like the M-170 seen below, could have been transferred to the Corps. After a few years of service, some areas of the world abandoned jeeps. For example, a deteriorating jeep fleet in Sierra Leone led to the abandonment of jeeps, at least according to this article. In another example, according to Ron Horton, who wrote a somewhat risqué look at his time in the Peace Corps, jeeps were quickly phased out in favor of bicycles, because the bikes were considered more friendly by the person who oversaw the Brazilian Peace Corps units.
Here are a few photos related to the Peace Corps and Jeeps:
PEACE CORPS TRAINING:
1964, NATIONAL ARCHIVES, CAPTION: Peace Corps trainees on the D.H. Lawrence Ranch near Taos, New Mexico. Three men in jeep on sandy hill, sand flying through air.
1964, NATIONAL ARCHIVES, CAPTION: Peace Corps trainees on the D.H. Lawrence Ranch near Taos, New Mexico. Six women driving in snow-covered dirt road, juniper bushes in background.
1964, NATIONAL ARCHIVES, CAPTION: Peace Corps trainees on the D.H. Lawrence Ranch near Taos, New Mexico. Jeep ascending steep dirt hill. [THIS MIGHT BE A CJ-3A GIVEN THE SIDE MOUNTED TIRE]
Here’s a wonderful photo of Perdita Huston, former Peace Corp Director of Mail and Bulgaria, in a WWII jeep:
Peace Corps, late 1990s, Perdita Huston
This photo of a CJ-3B with a Koenig hardtop in Chile was taken around 1965:
Finally, there’s no caption with this image of the back of a jeep, possibly a 1948 CJ-2A given the spare tire location:
