As it happened, the same traits that made the Model T Ford the go-to car of the people in the 1910s also made it the perfect platform for the kind of vehicle made famous by the Jeep a generation later. Some army models had custom metal bodies, but most came with wooden bodies atop a standard Model T cChassis. 20 Horsepower was about all that could be mustered out of the T's four-cylinder engine.

As we show you today, this Model T Ambulance model is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. Many thousands of these primitive vehicles were pressed into service during the mid to late stages of the war. As an armored military vehicle, the Model T would have been less than worthless. But as a light-duty ambulance and wounded personnel transporter behind muddy trench lines, Henry Ford's brainchild thrived. When it wasn't being shelled by Central Powers forces, at the very least.

In an era when even fighter aircraft were made of wood and canvas, what business does any ambulance have using metal components? We only joke, of course. Ambulance drivers at least outlived their pilot counterparts, which wasn't a hard bar to reach at roughly three weeks. It's all about the small victories, right?

Drivers of the military spec Model T came to love these trusty little wooden jalopies. Even parodying the famed American Poem "Gunga Din," by Rudyard Kipling in the American Field Service Bulletin called "Hunka Tin." To take one paraphrase from said parody," I've abused you, and I've flayed you, But by Henry Ford who made you, You are better than a Packard, Hunka Tin." It's a pretty decent hip-hop verse nearly 80 years too early, and also pretty edgy comedy for the period. All it needs is a backing track.

Now, no story about a Henry Ford product of this era would be complete without noting some of his more "problematic" views about specific hot-button issues that needn't be repeated. But at least the Ford product presented here would form a preview of what would ostensibly become the modern Jeep, an objective icon of democracy in its day in the Second World War.

It's an even bigger miracle, considering how old the car is, to see one in the flesh in 2021. The hand crank lever jutting out of the front grille is the hand crank that precariously sputtered the venerable tin can to life. More than a few people suffered wrist injuries at the hand of such pre-key starting devices.

Famous men like Ernest Hemingway and Walt Disney found themselves behind the wheel of one of these Model T's. Whose tuned modifications ended at the extent of the impromptu stretcher arrangement where the rear passenger compartment sits typically. There's an old wives tale told by many antique car fans in the States that half the cars in the world were Model T's by the time production stopped.

Whether or not the records of the time could definitively prove that was frankly inconsequential, because when a person today thinks of a century-old car, they think of a Model T. All such tales do is grow the mythos behind this historic car evermore.

However you feel about the man who spawned this Ambulance, it served its purpose well in defense of democracy. To see one in person today is an honor few alive will ever experience. It may not be a modified car in the traditional sense, but its changes served a purpose far more significant than most any custom vehicle. Check back later for more coverage of our trip to the Museum of the US Air Force.