A Packard Clipper Eight Passenger Car Ordered By The Federal Government As A Staff Car On Behalf Of General Douglas MacArthur That Remains Unscathed, And In Pristine Condition Well Into The Present Day.
General Douglas MacArthur had ordered this Packard with every available option, including Air Conditioning, an AM/Mediumwave Radio, and a Manual Transmission with Overdrive. Strings were pulled (as the saying goes) for Packard to ship the Car from their plant in the Detroit city proper (which still stands, and remains in ruins well into the present day, as of the time of writing this post) to where McArthur was stationed in Australia at the time the Car was ready to be delivered to him.
Below is the link to a website with the history, and photographs of the Packard Plant in the Detroit city proper:
The Packard Plant as of 2007is seen in the following images:
The Packard Plant as of 2022 is seen in the photograph below:
In other words, Douglas MacArthur was able to enjoy Air Conditioning while many of the soldiers fighting for him fought in the hot, sometimes humid, and sometimes arid conditions of the Central and South Pacific. Nevertheless, MacArthur’s enjoyment of the Air Conditioning was inconsequential, as air conditioning was a relatively novel and extremely expensive commodity during World War II.
After the War, the Car wound up in the possession of Douglas MacArthur’s chauffeur; who lived in Texas.
Douglas MacArthur’s chauffeur had arranged for all of the military trim on the car to be removed and the car to be repainted in a pastel color common in the 1950s. The Body Shop where this chauffeur was supposed to have the changes done to this car was busy, and the chauffeur had to wait.
The delay in the work that this chauffeur had commissioned the Body Shop to do on this Car, as well as this chauffeur passing away unexpectedly in his sleep before he could have this work done on this Car; had prevented this Car’s fate from being sealed; as far as keeping it in mint condition, and keeping the military equipment and livery, as well as Douglas MacArthur’s belongings all intact; and the car surviving as an artifact from WWII, as it was stored away in a garage somewhere in Texas until the 1980s, when it was finally taken out of storage.
Matthew Parij 
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