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The Regional Military Museum in Houma have received two fully restored jeeps from a Destrehan donor, adding vehicles from the Vietnam and Korean conflicts to their collection as a multi-million dollar expansion looms.
The museum formally accepted the jeeps – a Mighty Mite circa Vietnam and an M-38 fabricated for Korea – and awarded donor Bill Stepps with a lifetime membership on Friday. Stepps and retired Maj. Gen. Hunt Downer parked the vehicles in front of the museum’s main building earlier this month during a presentation before a small crowd.
“If you go talk to young kids today, they don’t know anything about Second World War, Korea, Vietnam,” Stepps said. “We need some way to at least teach them what happened in this country, all the people that served in the military to give them all the freedom that they’ve got. That equipment is just part of that story.”
Stepps, a native of Avoyelles Parish, was training with the U.S. Navy when the Korean conflict ceased in the 1953. After leaving service a few years later, Stepps worked as an airplane mechanic in the private sector for many years before shifting into a career with traditional work hours.
Now 79, Stepps agreed to donate the jeeps to the Regional Military Museum on recommendation of an employee at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, to which Stepps first reached out.
Stepps estimated he invested at least $40,000 in acquiring and restoring the vehicles, which his brother John was a partner to. Stepps chose to donate rather than sell so that he could ensure proper preservation.
Renowned for its aluminum structure, the 1,700-pound Mighty Mite features the hooks that helicopter-strung cords gripped as the two-seater was easily shipped among Marine Corps squadrons in troubled Vietnam terrain.
The M-38 was an Army vehicle, steel framed and weighing 2,750 pounds. Like the Mighty Mite, its main role was transportation, though both vehicles could carry anti-recoil weapons if necessary.
Both variations are relatively rare, Stepps said, as updated models were rolled out at the expense of their production.
Roughly 6,000 M38s were produced, he said, and less than 4,000 Mighty Mites were built before a turbine-engine helicopter was produced, removing the requirement that transportable jeeps be ultra-lightweight.
As the military moved on to alternative jeeps, the obsolete versions were destroyed, dumped or sold, Stepps explained. He purchased M38 from a man in Donaldsonville “a couple years ago” and the Mighty Mite from a California man not long afterward.
Concerned that the garage he stores them in now will be sold soon, Stepps took the initiative to grant them to the museum, he said.
The jeeps will be on roped-off display at the Regional Military Museum and utilized in community-outreach events.
“They’re not only good static displays, but they’re road ready,” emphasized C.J. Christ, an Air Force veteran, founder of the museum and president of its board of directors.
When the museum pairs with local eateries for fundraisers, for example, it marks the location with parked military equipment out front.
Veterans will also utilize the jeeps, which are insured and registered with the state as drivable vehicles, in parades throughout the year, including the upcoming Carnival season.
The museum has made commitments to participate in at least three Mardi Gras parades. They struck agreements with the krewes of Hercules and Hyacinthians in Houma and the Krewe of Apollo in Lockport, Christ said.
Museum officials also expressed excitement over a multi-million dollar expansion set to begin this year once the last remaining financial hurdles are cleared. In total, the expansion will beget a facility adjacent to the current museum, constructed in two phases.
The first phase is designed as a striking roadside attraction to Barrow Street, never mind its interior utility. A three-story glass building is slated to neighbor the current facility. A TBM Avenger, a WWII-era torpedo bomber, will be suspended from the atrium’s ceiling and be clearly visible to passersby on Barrow Street, Christ said.
The glass facade will have nearly 5,800 square feet of floor space and will stand three stories high. Museum officials plan to use it as a gathering spot for celebrations.
Museum officials, waiting on their property-tax bond application to pass through the Terrebonne Parish Council and state Bond Commission, expect to advertise this phase for construction bids by April, Christ said.
Behind the atrium will eventually be the fruit of the expansion’s second phase, a three-story addendum with exhibits, a full library and office spaces. The back-end will house most of the museum’s artifacts, and the current facility will be mostly used as a research center.
Retired Maj. Gen. Hunt Downer parks a M-38 jeep circa the Korean War at the Houma Regional Military Museum. The jeeps – also pictured is a Mighty Mite from Vietnam – were donated earlier this month by Destrehan resident Bill Stepps.
