Trucking salute on Veteran's Day

“War, disguise it as you may, is a dirty, shoddy business.” –Winston Churchill

We’ve been at war for nearly a decade now, the U.S. and many of its allies, fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq against all sorts of enemies. Many have fallen in these conflicts – men and women alike – so the very least we can do is pause for a day and reflect on their sacrifice on behalf of our societies as a whole.

One such trucking tribute involves an F-350 turned into a rolling memorial for U.S. Army medic Ryan Walker, killed in a roadside bomb attack back in January 2006. Though on the cusp of rotating home – with his bags literally packed and ready – Walker went with his fellow troopers out on one last mission to make sure they had medical support close at hand; a mission, sadly, that proved his last.

And such trucking tributes to the fallen are not restricted to American iron, mind you. For example, below you’ll witness a Canadian trucker who turned his rig into a rolling memorial for his son, Trooper Jack Bouthillier, who died in Afghanistan on March 20, 2009. His rig also honors all of Canada’s war dead from the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts.

Perhaps no one, though, has captured the spirit of sacrifice quite the way musician Joey Holiday has. A familiar name in trucking circles, Holiday wrote a song several years ago honoring soldiers and truckers alike for their service – a song entitled (appropriately enough) Soldiers of the Highway, penned especially for those brave men and women who work the long and dangerous truck supply convoys in Iraq.

So to you, all current and former military service men and women, we thank you for your sacrifices and honor those of your brave brethren who made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation. We salute you.