MILITARY VEHICLES The story of the BANTAM JEEP Karl Probst, an engineer working for American Bantam Car Company in Butler, PA, was the father of the jeep. Responding to a request for bids from the Army, he led the design and manufacture of the prototype jeep in just seven weeks and delivered to Camp Holabird, MD, on 21 September 1940.. **** Bantam GPV prototype delivered on time in September 1940. The origin of the name "jeep" is unclear. Popular notion has it that the vehicle bore the designation "GP" (for "General Purpose"), which was phonetically slurred into the word...