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    In the Loop: Reviving interest in World War II history

Mayo Clinic cardiologist Gurpreet Sandhu, M.D., Ph.D. in a WWI jeep he refurbished
Mayo Clinic cardiologist Gurpreet Sandhu, M.D., Ph.D., is on a one-man mission to restore interest in American and Indian history by bringing World War II Jeeps back to life. 


By day, Gurpreet Sandhu, M.D., Ph.D., is a cardiologist at Mayo Clinic, working to repair and restore the hearts of his patients through his work as director of the Earl H. Wood Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory and chair of Mayo's Division of Interventional Cardiology in Rochester. At night and on weekends, you can find him working with another sort of patient — one made of rubber and steel.

As Rochester's KTTC-TV and KAAL-TV report, Dr. Sandhu has devoted his spare time to finding rusty, run-down World War II Jeeps and lovingly bringing them back to life. It's a passion Dr. Sandhu tells us dates back to his childhood in India. His grandfather subscribed to Popular Mechanics magazine. "I started reading those and then just started tinkering with stuff," he says.

He also brings the old Jeeps back to life to restore interest in the historical period they came from. "You can see Jeeps and remember the contributions of the soldiers," Dr. Sandhu tells KAAL-TV.

Dr. Sandhu's grandfather, Randhir Sandhu, M.D., was born in British-ruled India in the late 1800s, and was shot in the chest while responding to Mahatma Gandhi's call for peaceful protests for independence. His injuries, thankfully, were not fatal, and he came to the United States soon afterward. Read the rest of the story.
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This story originally appeared on the In the Loop blog.