Military Vehicle Preservation Association on 28-Day Convoy from Canadian Border to New Orleans

Every two years, the Military Vehicle Preservation Association makes a several-thousand-mile trek across different historically significant paths and routes. Right now, the group is over a week into their 2024 convoy along the historic Jefferson Highway and recently made a stop in Blackduck.

This specific journey has over 70 MVPA members participating.

“They find out about it and then they start prepping their vehicles for ’em,” said 2024 Jefferson Highway Convoy Commander Dan McCluskey. “It takes us over two years to do organize one of these convoys, and we’ve been doing them every two years since 2009.”

But this is no quick trip down the road. The convoy is going from the Canadian border all the way down to Louisiana in New Orleans, and the trip will take 28 whole days to complete.

“We’ve been picking initially military routes of significance, and now we’re on to named roads that were all developed back in the ’20s and ’30s,” explained McCluskey. “This particular convoy is called the Jefferson Highway. A lot of people have forgotten about the Jefferson Highway, it’s kind of gotten overshadowed by interstates over the years. So we’re here to to bring life back to the Jefferson Highway.”

Along with bringing attention to the historical highways, the convoy is also taking the chance to show off the 30 military vehicles on hand.

“We’ve got everything from WWII Jeeps, Vietnam-era jeeps,” McCluskey said. “We have a three-quarter-ton march unit where we have three-quarter-ton cargo trucks, ambulances, all the way up to modern five-ton trucks in our convoy. This whole operation is a volunteer effort. All of these vehicles are personally owned by us. We pay our way for the whole trip.”

Along the way down south, the convoy is making many stops.

“We’re going to hit the WWI museum in Kansas City, WWII museum in New Orleans, we’re going to be visiting historic Fort Leavenworth,” added McCluskey. “A lot of the military camps were down along the way we will be visiting and overnighting at.”

On top of visiting these sites and showing off the vehicles, the convoy also aims to bring joy to onlookers. They visit veterans homes and several schools, where kids can line up along the road during the school day to see everyone drive by.