Veterans, community members greet vintage military convoy in St. Stephen

ST. STEPHEN — A strange sight rolled through St. Stephen the morning of Saturday, Oct. 5. A convoy of dozens of vintage military vehicles stopped right across from the Church of St. Stephen on the way to New Orleans.

About 30 vehicles are participating in the Military Vehicle Preservation Association Convoy. Drivers and passengers will spend October retracing the historic 1918 Jefferson Highway route from the Minnesota border to New Orleans, driving more than 2,500 miles in 30 days, driving about 35 miles per hour.

“We're out here to show history in motion. That’s kind of our tagline,” said Dan McCluskey, convoy commander. “We want to celebrate and remind people how much the vehicles contributed to the war effort.”

Most people would only see these vehicles in photos or museums. But the veterans they meet along the way have real-world experience — driving them, fixing them up.

The convoy started in East Grand Forks on Tuesday, Oct. 1, and is making stops in small towns hosted by local American Legion or VFW posts, veterans homes and other groups.

Everywhere they stop, they tend to draw a crowd, McCluskey said.

“The thing I really, really enjoy is when we can time it so we’ve got school kids out there. … We've been past two schools that emptied their whole school alongside the road, cheering us on,” McCluskey said. “All the elementary school kids had all made their own American flags in class, and then they all had them out there waving their own handmade American flags.”

McCluskey is originally from California. He and his wife have already put on 3,500 miles hauling the truck to the convoy start in Minnesota. They left on Sept. 7 and plan to return home Nov. 4.

Now retired, this is the eighth convoy the couple has done. Past convoys have followed military convoy routes, including the Lincoln Highway, military routes from Washington, D.C., to California, Route 66 and even routes into Canada and Alaska.

McCluskey is driving a World War II Jeep that belonged to his dad, purchased in 1958.

“I’ve been a military enthusiast since I was 17 years old,” McCluskey said. “As a historian and a vehicle collector, I've always gone — and most of us — have always gone that extra step.”

When they finish this trip, the couple will have about 27,000 miles driving military vehicles across the country. McCluskey said it’s a fantastic way to see the country.

He and his wife are already planning on joining future convoys following the route of Lewis and Clark and the Western Yellowstone Trail. McCluskey figures that in about five years, they’ll have been through most of the states.

The convoy accepts any vintage military vehicles, and they can range from a 1918 Dodge staff car to modern vehicles, McCluskey said. All branches are usually represented, too, McCluskey said.

Like McCluskey and his wife, the convoys tend to draw the same people each time, but about 10-15% are new people, McCluskey said.

The majority of drivers and passengers are retired, but about a third are active or retired military, McCluskey said. This convoy has three people from New Zealand, one from Belgium and another from Australia, with the rest from the U.S. Every morning, they play the U.S. national anthem and rotate the anthems of the other three countries represented.

One of the Kiwi members was Paul Baptist, from a town north of Auckland, New Zealand.

“I’m a Jeep guy. I've got five Jeeps. It's a disease,” Baptist said. He’s got four that are road-legal and a few other projects from World War II and post-World War II.

Baptist didn’t serve in the military but his 24-year-old son serves in the New Zealand Air Force. The foreign participants usually fly to the U.S. and borrow a vintage vehicle to drive. The logistics of getting military vehicles in and out of the country — even vintage ones — is difficult and costly, Baptist said.

About two-thirds camp in their vehicles at night, some of which are converted for the purpose, while the remainder find hotel rooms.

The convoy recommends people road test their vehicles ahead of time, but they also do internal safety inspections to ensure they’re safe and road ready, McCluskey said.

Just in case, three trucks with trailers follow the convoy to help if a vehicle breaks down. The trucks have tools, spare parts and expert mechanics. If they can’t get the vehicle running where it stopped, they’ll haul it to the next location and work on it there.

The drivers are always in contact with radios. Signs mark the vehicles as part of the Jefferson Highway convoy, along with bright signs. They tend to stand out.

The convoys are complicated to plan, and each one takes about two years of advanced work. The group notifies every town they’re going to drive through and tries to contact American Legions, VFWs and other veterans groups on their route.

The most meaningful reactions come from veterans, McCluskey said.

“Occasionally, you'll get a World War II vet telling us the stories about them driving or riding into vehicles. That’s really the neatest,” McCluskey said. “It really helps give back to them, you know, to celebrate the service that they did utilizing these vehicles.”

The convoy stopped at a veterans home this week, too, Baptist said.

“It was just incredible. The gratitude and, and you could see them … the hard drives going flat out on rewind,” Baptist said. “They’re pretty teared up. They're pretty emotional. … And that's why we do it … just to help them remember and think of their buddies and to honor their and honor their service.”

The St. Cloud VA Medical Center brought two small buses full of veterans to St. Stephen to witness the convoy, many in wheelchairs.

Ed Wilde, a Vietnam Navy veteran, enjoyed speaking to other Navy vets.

“I wanted to see some of the Army and other services because I was aboard ship all the time,” Wilde said. “I was what they called a Tin Can Sam.”

David Usher, who was in the Army in Vietnam, was excited about the convoy.

“I wasn’t going to miss it,” Usher said.

He saw some familiar equipment, some of the trucks and jeeps, and figured he still remembered how to drive them and fix them up.

On this trip, Baptist said he encountered one vet on the trip who initially swore at them.

“I was a bit taken aback, and I said, well, we've just come to share our patriotism with the Legion and etc, etc. He says, ‘You made me cry,’” Baptist said. “Just as we were leaving, I brushed past him again, and he said, ‘Thank you for all you do, and thank you for coming.’ So that was quite touching. I started crying then, and got in the truck and sneaked off quick.”

For more information, visit mvpa.org/convoys.