The US Veterans Memorial Museum has examples of all three variants of the M151 Military Utility Tactical Truck (MUTT) manufactured by Ford Motor Company. The vehicle pictured, the M151A1 was used by the Marines in 1967.

3922 of these lightweight jeeps were produced for the Marine Corps between 1960 and 1963. Designated the M422, these jeeps had an all aluminum body and an air cooled engine which helped keep their weight down to about 1700 pounds.

The Last Jeep

This was the last military derivative of the original 1941 Willys Jeep. While the word “Jeep” became a part of the language, vehicles of this type that came into military service after the M38A1 were new designs from the ground up.

On 11 July, 1940, the US Army Quartermaster Corps requested bids from 135 companies to build 70 "light reconaissance and command cars". Only two submitted bids by the target date of 23 July, 1940, The American Bantam Car Company and Willys-Overland. Only Bantam delivered their first vehicle by the contract deadline of 23 September, 1940.

Although the Ford Pygmy placed third in the Army tests, an order was placed for 1,500 of a developed version. Approximately 3,650 of this configuration were eventually produced by Ford Motor Company. Most went to Great Britain and Russia under Lend-Lease.

Willys was successful in the competition for the 1/4 ton reconnaissance car contract by using the most powerful engine of any entrant in their pilot vehicle, "The Quad". This made their design overweight but gave a large performance increase. The Army raised the weight limit and Willys cut their weight down to meet the new Army specification. This resulted in a contract for 1,500 vehicles identified as the model MA.

Compared to its competitors, the Willys MA had a more powerful engine, and lower unit cost. These factors were among the reasons Willys was chosen as the company that would produce the 1/4 ton 4x4 truck. The better features of all the pre-production and prototype vehicles were incorporated into the Willys MB.

Without question, the crown jewel of museum's collection is the Ford Pygmy, the oldest known surviving example of the vehicles that became the jeep. Ford was one of three companies competing to fulfill the Army’s requirement for a 1/4 ton Reconnaissance Car.