Thanksgiving blog

Hello, dear readers! I’m thinking about what I’m thankful for this year, and the older I get, the more freedom is to me. We honored those who served on Veteran’s Day when we looked at Patton’s Command Car, but I’ve still been thinking about all of the men and women who have worked and sacrificed to keep us safe and allow us our freedoms. So today, we’re taking a looking at a vehicle that honored one of the greatest heroes our country, and indeed the entire world, has ever known: General Douglas MacArthur’s Chrysler Crown Imperial Limousine.

It is fitting that the name of the vehicle that transported MacArthur to official engagements invoked imperialism since he was responsible for overseeing the restructuring of the Empire of Japan after World War II. The Crown Imperial was touted as the ultimate passenger experience and included the first power-window partition in a limo. Additionally, the Imperial was the first vehicle ever built with disc brakes, which are a feature that we often take for granted even now.

The Chrysler Imperial was the largest car that the automaker had built to date, and it was an eye-catching and imposing presence as the general was chauffeured through the streets of Tokyo to his Dai Ichi office during the Occupation of Japan. And as previously mentioned, the vehicle’s nomenclature was an intentional affirmation of American oversight during the reconstruction that followed World War II.

At 229” long and 145” wide, Douglas MacArthur’s Chrysler Imperial Limousine was a moving monument to the man tasked with rebuilding the East after so much destruction. During this week of Thanksgiving, I continue to be thankful for those who came before and sacrificed so much so that we can have the relative peace that we enjoy today.

-Trey Fennell