This isn't true, although it is what the factory service manual says. I just changed out the blower on my '01. There are two alternative techniques to doing it without removing the dash.

If you look under the dash, you'll see a few screws around where the blower is-- remove these and the blower will drop out. The problem is that one of the screws is jammed up against the firewall so that you can't get a tool on it (or even see it).

One way to deal with this is to go under the hood and loosen the nuts that hold the HVAC unit to the firewall enough that you can pull the HVAC away from the firewall a little bit and access the hidden screw.

The other way and the way that I did it, is to remove the kick panel trim, roll the carpet back, then jam your fingers up behind the blower to locate (by touch) where the hidden screw is. When you've located it, mark that area of the insulation with a pen or marker. Now get your handy needle-nose pliers and rip away the insulation enough that you can get a socket on the rear screw-- I used a 1/4x3" extension, a 1/4" u-joint and the proper socket. Position the socket on the screw by feel and then remove the screw. You can remove the rest of the screws easily and drop out the blower. When you put it back together, you can try to put the hidden screw back in, but I didn't bother and have had no adverse consequences.

So this will let you do a job that's about 6 hours book time in 45 minutes, for the DIYer, saving you a ton of money and for Chrysler Tech, beating the book by 5 hours and making a ton of profit on the job. ;)