Origem do Jeep e seu nome

Mud People do meu Brasil,

tenham paciencia p/ ler este ate o final, pois ele e muito interessante. Fala sobre como surgio o nome JEEP e como estamos todos enganados quando falamos que GP e General Purpose;. A pagina da qual extrai o mail e superinteressante tem inclusive os GPAs (JEEPs Anfibios e ate um JEEP helicoptero).
http://www.scsn.bee.qut.edu.au/~rwalker/JeepShed/main.htm

http://phaedra.apana.org.au/ww2jeep.html

What does GP really mean?
This must be the longest running mystery in the preproduction jeep field. Nearly every written source says GP means General Purpose. Not so. The page reproduced here from Ford's book SERVICE SCHOOL for US Army Instructors on Ford US Army Vehicles (1941), shows very clearly that in all Ford prefixes G always means GOVERNMENT and P means 80 inch wheelbase Reconnaissance Car (jeeps). The W in GPW stands for Willys of course, who built the MA on which the GPW was based.
8-5-41 Section D-1
Page 1
FORD PARTS NUMBERING SYSTEM
Prefix
The first digit in the prefix indicates the year for which the part was designed as follows:
8 for 1938
9 for 1939
0 for 1940
1 for 1941
G Government units regardless of year
The second digit, which may be either a one, two or a nine has the following significance:
1 Stands for 85 H.P. V-8
2 Stands for 60 H.P. V-8
9 Stands for 95 H.P. V-8
N Stands for 4-Cyl
P Stands for 80 W/B Reconnaissance Car
Earliest printed usage of the word 'jeep':
According to [1] p.43 (quoted v.):
A feature story written by Katherine Hillyer and published on 16 March
1941 in the Washington Daily News called the 1/4 ton
4x4 a jeep. It was never called anything else thereafter.
THIS POPEYE COMIC STRIP, PUBLISHED APRIL 22, 1940, was introduced in evidence at hearing to determine the origin of the word, JEEP, as applied to military vehicles. A Minneapolis army sergeant testified the strip inspired him to first coin the word. Popeye is a regular Daily Times feature.
DAILY TIMES COMIC STRIP ANIMAL INSPIRED SOLDIER TO USE OF 'JEEP'
The versatility of a roguish imp in the Daily Times comic strip, Popeye, four years ago inspired a Minneapolis army sergeant to apply the appellation JEEP to the army's 7,500-pound tractor trucks until then known as prime movers, Sergeant James T. O'Brien, 1207 W. Broadway, testified before the federal trade commission here. J. Earl Cox, commission trial examiner, conducted a one day hearing to weigh claims of the Willys-Overland Co., Minneapolis-Moline Power Co., and the American Bantam Automobile Co., to use of the name Jeep, to identify postwar farm trucks they contemplate manufacturing. It was during a twilight bivouac on the south shore of Mille Lacs lake during maneuvers at Camp Ripley in July and August of 1940 the name Jeep to identify army trucks was born, O'Brien related. He had pulled a bundle of old newspapers from under a seat and was catching up on the antics of his favorite characters when the jeep in the Popeye strip hit me between the eyes, O'Brien said. O'Brien said he painted the name on his vehicle, drivers of other jeeps at the camp caught the spirit of the thing and when he returned from maneuvers three weeks later he learned the word had become commonplace. O'Brien and Sergeant Sam Love, chief mechanic of the Minnesota military department, testified the vehicles on maneuvers at Camp Ripley were the first of their type either had seen and they were built by the Minneapolis- Moline Co.  The Willys company will start its defense in the case later this summer in New York.
On page 44 of [1] the following is given:
HAUSMANN
Irving Red Hausmann was the Willys-Overland test driver who laid claim to giving the demonstration drive AND the name jeep to Katherine Hillyer of the Washington (DC) Daily News, in March 1941.
HILLYER
Katherine Hillyer - A staff writer for the Washington (DC) Daily News who first used the name 'jeep' in a newspaper feature on 16 March 1941.
References from [2], pages 159-160, quoted verbatim:
A LITTLE MORE ON THE NAME JEEP...
Although the volume of literature regarding the jeep continues to grow there is no more certainty today where the name jeep came from than there was 45 years ago. Several things are certain:
- The comic strip character JEEP made his first appearance in papers all over America on 1 April 1936. The strip was Popeye by Elzie Crisler Segar.
- Haliburton Oil Well Company of Duncan, Oklahoma built a truck called
Jeep in 1938.
- Minneapolis-Moline Power Implement Company called their Artillery Prime Mover a Jeep in 1940.
- Both Ford and Bantam sources take credit for the name jeep.
- Willys ended up with the trade mark Jeep after WWII.
- The name jeep may have come from an attempt to pronounce the letters GP, but GP NEVER stood for General Purpose" as so many sources state. In the Ford Parts Numbering System, G always referred only to a unit built for the Government and Preferred only to an 80 inch wheelbase reconnaissance car. The General Purpose idea refuses to die in spite of proof positive to the contrary.
- The Most recent in a long line of owners of the Jeep trade name is Jeep Eagle Corporation, a part of Chrysler Motors. Amazingly, they are now trying to get the word jeep removed from dictionaries in an effort to shore-up their rights to the use of the word.
On page 44 of [3] the following is given:
...other names were given to small quarter-ton 4x4 vehicles like Bug, Midget, Peep, blitz Buggy, Quad etc. The frst prototype to be called a Jeep was built by Willys. Irving Hausmann the test driver of the Toledo company who drove the prototype to Holabird tells this story. Soon after I arrived, Ford also sent their prototype to be tested so we had to distinguish between our vehicle and the Ford bacause I was not keen on having any confusion between the two models. I therefore, launched the name Jeep among the soldiers who were there at every opportunity I emphasiz- ed the name, which soon got around.
...the name Jeep was used for an autogyro tested at Wright Field and for the prototype of the B 17 Flying Fortress tested at Langley Field in 1937. The Dodge half-ton 4x4 was also called the Jeep in the beginning, a name which later gave place to Peep