In November and December, one of the busiest periods of the year for the transportation sector, the Wreaths Across America mission brings drivers together in an effort of unparalleled unity. With a positive, “can-do” work ethic, these professionals make it possible for Americans to honor millions of veterans laid to rest at home and overseas. In 2024, with over 4,900 participating locations, in addition to Arlington National Cemetery, transportation logistics are immense.

Many of these drivers are military veterans and say the truckload of fresh balsam-fir wreaths is the most precious cargo they transport in their careers. Wreaths Across America shares their stories in the “Trucking Tributes” feature online and on Wreaths Across America Radio.

Crowley has been supporting the Wreaths Across America mission to remember, honor, and teach since 2019 and each year they increase their contributions. With humble beginnings in 1892 with Thomas Crowley and his rowboat delivering mail to ships in San Francisco harbor, Crowley has grown into a diversified company providing logistics, land transportation,  government services, shipping, and energy solutions. Patrick Wallace is the VP of Operations of Land Transportation for Crowley. “We have customers all around the world, both commercial and in the government sector primarily with the DOD,” Patrick shared. “Crowley is a family-owned company and the three CEOs throughout the company’s history have been named Tom Crowley.”

Patrick loves sharing the story of how Crowley discovered Wreaths Across America. “One of our team members here at Crowley, Jerome Thomas, was attending a trade show and happened to be down the aisle from Wreaths Across America booth and found it interesting especially with the amount of work we do for the DOD,” Patrick explained. “Jerome asked how can we help, what can we do? Oddly enough Wreaths was having a hard time getting wreaths to Puerto Rico and since that is a place we service, it was a natural fit. We started with just a small subset of the company being involved donating money, transportation, and containers to get the wreaths to Puerto Rico but thanks to the generosity of our employees its grown. Last year, we had over 200 employees and their families volunteer across the U.S. to lay wreaths whether it was in Jacksonville, Philly, or Puerto Rico and I imagine we’ll have even more this year as we expand into other locations as well.”

As Phil Shook, Senior VP and General Manager of Land Transportation services explained, Wreaths Across America fits nicely with the company culture at Crowley. “The whole idea of giving back and being thankful and humble for all who enable us to do this is so important. It’s part of the core of who Crowley is, and part of the fiber of our being. This is near and dear to us organizationally and we take pride in allowing our employees to give back to what’s important to them.” Phil also went on to explain why hiring veterans benefits Crowley. “Being based in Jacksonville, we have a significant number of veterans who work across our organization. People who are coming from a military background are usually very disciplined, obviously, understand process, procedure, communication and those are core tenants of a successful transportation company. A lot of people out there do what we do, but what differentiates Crowley is our people.”

In 2022, Crowley partnered with Wreaths Across America to pay tribute to Puerto Rico’s beloved veteran Roberto Clemente 50 years after his passing.

Phil says despite this being his first year experiencing Wreaths Across America Day with his Crowley family, he knows of and has supported the mission for many years. “It’s personal for me,” he shared. “My father-in-law passed away a couple of years ago and he’s a Navy veteran and laid to rest in Abraham Lincoln cemetery outside of Chicago, and I’ve also had a number of other relatives who have served. This is just a great opportunity. With everything that’s going on in the world, and the country, right now, this seems to be one thing that unites people. People can agree on being thankful to our veterans and never losing sight of the sacrifice they made – and that of the sacrifices being made now, on a daily basis, by our active military members – to give us the freedoms we enjoy. We should never lose sight of that.” 

In 2024, Crowley remains a proud member of the Honor Fleet and a steadfast contributor engaging more and more employees with the mission.

Thank you, Patrick, Phil, and the entire Crowley team for all you do to support the mission to remember, honor and teach.

If you’d like to join the Wreaths Across America Honor Fleet, you can get started with a click right here!

You can hear more with Patrick and Phil on Trucking Tributes, which can be listened to every Truckin’ Tuesday at 11:00 AM and again at 4:00 PM EST on Wreaths Across America Radio and Wednesday at 8:30 AM EST as part of RadioNemo on Sirius XM Channel 146, Road Dog Trucking.”

Discover the Trucking Tributes archive playlist on Soundcloud.com