Military convoy coming through Van Wert

VW independent/submitted information

The Military Vehicle Preservation Association will be making a stop in Van Wert at American Legion Post 178 this coming Sunday morning, August 18. 

The organization is recreating the first United States Army transcontinental convoy, which occurred in the summer of 1919. The convoy lead by then-Lieutenant Colonel Dwight Eisenhower mostly followed the Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental highway in the United States. The trip, which consisted of 81 motorized Army vehicles moving from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco, California, took 62 days and covered 3,251 miles. Its purpose was to test the ability to move the military under wartime conditions. 

The Military Vehicle Preservation Association is an international organization for military vehicle enthusiasts, historians, preservationists and collectors interested in the acquisition, restoration, preservation, safe operation and public education of historic military transport. Military vehicles include bicycles to jeeps, armored cars to tanks, from the days of the cavalry to World War II to Operation Desert Storm. 

In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the first convoy, this group of 65-70 vehicles and 10-15 support vehicles left York, Pennsylvania, on August 10. Traveling 70-100 miles a day while east of the Mississippi River and up to 150 miles a day west of the Mississippi, the trip will end in San Francisco. Unfortunately, several vehicles were lost traversing the mountains of Pennsylvania. 

The convoy will leave Wooster on Saturday morning, arriving in Delphos at approximately 4 p.m. It will camp overnight in Stadium Park in Delphos, leaving there around 7 a.m. Sunday and coming into Van Wert on Lincoln Highway, down Main Street, and to American Legion Post 178, 631 W. Main St., at about 7:30 Sunday morning. A breakfast will be provided for them by the American Legion before the convoy continues on to its next stop: South Bend, Indiana. 

The public is encouraged to line Main Street to welcome the convoy to Van Wert and is also invited to get a close-up view of these historic vehicles while they are stopped at the American Legion Post for breakfast.

More information on the Military Vehicle Preservation Association or the convoy itself can be found at https://www.mvpa.org/convoys.