WATCH: Veteran, trucker receives the custom wrapped rig he so deeply deserves

A military-veteran-gone-trucker is gifted a beautiful custom wrapped semi truck in this heartwarming video.

Veterans in Trucking, an organization dedicated to honoring military veterans and helping them find the best jobs in trucking, recently teamed up with one of their partner trucking companies, American Central Transport, to gift a custom wrapped semi truck to a deserving military veteran trucker. 

While ACT is the home of many worthy military veteran truck drivers, Kenneth Mateer’s story really stuck out; and after watching Ken’s interview explaining his story, it’s easy to see why. 

“The more I spoke with Ken he just really has such a great story. He’s a great representative, he stepped up when our nation needed him and thi is just a good way to say thank you ken for your service,” said Josh Mecca, Director of Recruiting at ACT.

Ken initially attended bootcamp at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri in 1983, then graduated and went to Fort Benning for a while before doing three years over in Germany and a little over two years at Fort Riley. In 1991, he was given the option to ship out to Korea or get out of the service, so he chose to leave the military – that’s when he started trucking. 

“When I was off duty I went to truck driving school. There were actually no other thoughts in my mind of what I wanted to do. When I was a kid my stepdad was a truck driver and  I used to go with him so I guess once you get that trucking in the blood you always seem to have it,” Ken said. 

Ken says he loved his trucking job, but when 911 happened, he knew he needed to serve his country once again. 

“I was out for about 13 years, then after 911 I knew that we were gonna do something. You know we weren’t gonna sit there and let our country get attacked so I joined the National Guard,” Ken explained. 

Ken goes on to say that about a week after joining the National Guard, he was called for deployment in Iraq. 

“We did a year in Iraq in 2004-2005. While in Iraq I re-enlisted for six years. In 2009 we did a tour in Egypt until 2010 so all that time I was in the national guard I was driving truck,” he continued. 

After nearly 22 years in combined military service and a battle with cancer, Ken retired from the military and now drives with ACT – and that’s where his freshly wrapped, custom truck comes in. 

We won’t spoil Ken’s touching reaction to receiving the rig, you’ll have to watch the video for that, but he does say that driving his new truck is an honor. 

Watch the tear-jerker of a video, below. Make sure to keep the tissues handy. Thank you for your service, Ken!