The DUKW was designed by Rod Stephens Jr. of Sparkman & Stephens, Inc. yacht designers, Dennis Puleston, a British deep-water sailor resident in the U.S., and Frank W. Speir from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [10] Developed by the National Defense Research Committee and the Office of Scientific Research and Development to solve the problem of resupply to units which had just performed an amphibious landing, it was initially rejected by the armed services. When a United States Coast Guard patrol craft ran aground on a sand bar near Provincetown, Massachusetts, an experimental DUKW happened to be in the area for a demonstration. Winds up to 60 knots (110km/h; 69mph), rain, and heavy surf prevented conventional craft from rescuing the seven stranded Coast Guardsmen, but the DUKW had no trouble, [11] and military opposition to the DUKW melted. The DUKW later proved its seaworthiness by crossing the English Channel. DUKWs were initially sent to Guadalcanal in the Pacific theater, but were used by an invasion force for the first time in the European theater, during the Sicilian invasion, Operation Husky, in the Mediterranean. After World War II, reduced numbers were kept in service by the United States, Britain, France, and Australia, with many stored pending disposal. Australia transferred many to Citizens Military Force units. A guy approached, told me I was a dirty American spreading Covid and just wanted to hurt people,” Allison said. The man even shoved her into her Jeep. “It scared the crap out of me.”

Clarke, Donald (1978). How It Works: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. Vol.1. Marshall Cavendish. p.96. a b Friedman, Norman (2002). U.S. amphibious ships and craft: an illustrated design history. Illustrated Design Histories. Naval Institute Press. p.218. ISBN 1-55750-250-1 . Retrieved 22 March 2010. Doyle, David (2003). Standard catalog of U.S. Military Vehicles. Krause Publications. p.121. ISBN 0-87349-508-X. During COVID-19, Allison Parliament, who was living in Alabama, decided to go home to Ontario, Canada, to be with her family. In June 2020, she made the 20-hour drive home. Before she arrived there, she needed to stop for some fuel.In the Pacific, USMC DUKWs were used to cross the coral reefs of islands such as Saipan and Guam and the tires were not affected by the coral. [19] p. 26 The Marines in the Pacific War The Marine Corps Gazette, Volume 31 Marine Corps Association, 1947

DUKWs were also used in Lake Garda in Italy by the 10th Mountain Division in the final days of the war. One sank crossing from Torbole sul Garda to Riva del Garda on the evening of 30 April 1945; 25 out of the 26 onboard died. Two other DUKWs sank without casualties. [22] [23] [24] After the war [ edit ]Decades later, the designation was explained erroneously by writers such as Donald Clarke, who wrote in 1978 that it was an initialism for "Duplex Universal Karrier, Wheeled". [7] [8] Allison Parliament didn’t set out to become an internationally known Jeep celebrity. But that’s exactly what happened after a terrible road trip from the southern United States to her native Canada during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. A dual citizen of both Canada and the United States, Allison decided to travel from her home in Clanton, Alabama to visit family and friends in Ontario. The Australian Army lent two DUKWs and crew to Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions for a 1948 expedition to Macquarie Island. Australian DUKWs were used on Antarctic supply voyages until 1970. [18] From 1945 to 1965, the Australian Commonwealth Lighthouse Service supply ship Cape York carried ex-Army DUKWs for supplying lighthouses on remote islands. [27] Fitzsimons, Bernard, general editor. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of 20th Century Weapons and Warfare (London: Phoebus, 1978), Vol. 8, p.802, "DUKW".