Circa 1960:
This remarkable set of photos, which was published here on The CJ3B Page for perhaps the first time anywhere, shows a CJ-3B Universal Jeep in use by the Royal Australian Air Force as a runway traffic control vehicle. With the Jeep featured prominently, the photos appear to have been taken for promotional use by Willys Motors Australia. However, former RAAF Reservist Ian Hall, who has restored a retired RAAF Jeep, comments that they "could be official RAAF photos as it would be unusual for civilian photos to be taken on a Defence base, particularly on a runway area."
The first photo shows that the Jeep is right-hand-drive and radio-equipped, and features an airman posed as if talking on the radio. (The pose recalls a scene in the 1956 movie Julie.)
The aircraft in the background of the photo above is a British-built Gloster Meteor jet fighter. An earlier version of the Meteor was the only Allied jet fighter to see combat in World War II, and actually intercepted some of the V1 flying bombs launched by Germany into Britain. Meteors entered regular service with the Royal Australian Air Force in 1951 with a true "baptism of fire" when they were taken into action by 77 Squadron in Korea, against the Mig-15.
Alf Blume in Denmark sent us a 1954 photo (160K JPEG) of a Royal Danish Air Force Willys MB in front of the Meteors of 723 Squadron at Aalborg AFB.
All the aircraft in these pictures have been given the new RAAF Roundel on their fuselage. Formally adopted in 1956, it consists of a red kangaroo in motion, surrounded by a royal blue circle. When the Royal Australian Air Force was formed in 1921 it adopted the existing red, white and blue Roundel of Britain's RAF (seen under the wing of the Hercules in the photo below) to identify its aircraft. However during World War II the inner red circle was removed when an 11 Squadron Catalina was mistaken for a Japanese plane by a U.S. Navy Wildcat.
These photos were taken after Willys Australia began assembling CJ-3B's in Australia in 1958. Vaughn Becker found the photos, and says, "They have what appears to be a serial number on the back of them, e.g. 1/24578-60. Maybe the 60 is the year but that is a pure guess."
It's a logical guess, as the second photo clearly shows that the Jeep is not brand new, with significant wear on the tires and the front bumper, and one windshield wiper drooping. The only obvious modification to the Jeep aside from the radio and the paint job, is a set of lifting rings on the bumper.