Burma Jeeps in Burma?

Ask many otherwise well-informed historic military vehicle (HMV) enthusiasts why the Ford GTB (G-622) is commonly called a “Burma Jeep,” and you will usually get some version of what seems like a logical answer: “They were used in Burma during World War II on the Burma Road.”

This explanation seems generally accepted — even by Wikipedia — and few question it. I accepted it, myself, when first seeing a Ford GTB in the 1970s. The vehicle belonged to a man who lived in the Arizona desert about thirty miles from Tucson. He lived near a large copper mine where the company I worked for was doing a scrap salvage operation. He called the truck a “Burma Jeep.” I rented the truck from him for about three months at company expense and quickly grew very