00:05 Rodney, I’m sure everybody out there listening is thinking the same thing I am. Thank you for your service and simpified. Welcome to Six-Figure Trucker, the podcast where we share advice on how to be successful in trucking and have fun while doing so. We’ll share stories, news, and advice on how to earn six figures in trucking. And we’ll speak to guys and gals that are already doing so. Let’s get to the show. Hello everyone and welcome to the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. And of course you guys and gals that listen to this every week, you know, it’s an it’s a space, it’s a venue, it’s an area where we elevate and celebrate the driver, the drivers that make this company, this country go round and round. Without them, we would not have the life and the lifestyles that we do have. And we’re very appreciative of what they bring to the table. And we have a very special guest who is joining us in his second week here on the program. Last week we heard from Rodney Clay.

01:06 He had a great story about life on the road, his trips, his travels, his life with his wife, how she is so involved in what he does. They work hand in hand. Got a great partnership business-wise and his husband wife. Rodney joins us now. Rodney, we know that you were joining us from just outside of South Dakota on your way to Minnesota last week and we are very happy that you’re with us now and you’d made mention three four times in last week’s episode about your time in the military. Tell us how that got started your life in the military. Oh, it started when I was a sophomore in high school down in Tennessee and buddies of excuse me, buddies of mine were, you know, one of them, his dad is a recruiter for the Tennessee National Guard and he mentioned that he had a buddy pro buddy program and if I wanted to go I’m like really the Army National Guard. I’m like get out of here, you know.

02:00 So between my sophomore year and my junior year, I went to boot camp. I went to Fort Jackson in South Carolina and I did a full boot camp for grown men and that was an experience. And then I went back and finished my did my junior year. And then between my junior and my sophomore year, I went to camp Fort Benny, Georgia, and I did my infantry training. And that was another experience with grown men. And they knew I was still you know going to be a high school senior. So between those years I was like a full part-time soldier for the Army National Guard in Tennessee infantryman and driving APC tanks and you know then as soon as I graduated you know I went straight into the Marine Corps.

02:52 Now let me get this straight. You’re in your high school years and you were driving an armored personnel carrier. Is that right?

02:59 Absolutely. Absolutely. What was that like?

03:02 That was another thing. It was different. We had some training at Campbell. It was in Kentucky and they one of the guys got sick. So, they threw me in this big box with all these things. And it’s an armor person that carry that carries about anywhere from 15 to 20 guys. And I loved it. It was a new challenge and a new experience for me on just being a junior in high school driving an armored personnel carrier that a grown man usually is. And I’m a kid, you know. So, it was very exciting for me to get into something like that.

03:43 What year are we in when you’re in high school there? What year are we looking at?

03:47 It was 19 I started in 1980. 1980 is when I first went into the to the Army National Guard. I graduated high school in 1982.

03:59 Now, driving that APC, was that I guess what you would classify as your first real quote unquote driving experience as it relates to you now as a driveaway driver?

04:14 No, I did that only every now and then. It was mostly like on the summer in the some of the summer months and every now and then when we did little training but my first experience was I was in the Marine Corps and all of a sudden I heard hey Clay I’m like oh like what is that and I turn around and here’s a major he said can you drive this Jeep right here he called me son I’m like I just said yes sir cuz you know he scared the mess out of me so I he said I need you to take me to a meeting so I took him to a meeting stripping gear and everything in this Jeep he’s like I need you to wait right here Clay Hey, I got a meeting. 3 hours later, this guy comes out. Hey Clay, did you see me coming? I’m like, no sir. He said, why don’t you salute me, Clay? He said, let’s go and you take me back. He said, Clay, you want to be my driver? I appreciate that you want to be my driver. I didn’t get a chance to answer this guy. And you know, he all of a sudden I’m his driver from being a radio personnel guy in a warehouse of carrying radios on my back.

05:09 Now I’m a driver of a Jeep. And he said, “You need to learn how to drive this thing because of all the shanking and banking you’re doing with me.” He said, “It doesn’t look good on me, Clay.” I’m like, “Yes, sir. Yes, sir.” So, from that point, I he actually switched my MOS into the motorpool from being a radio guy. So, that that kind of was my first experience of being thrown into actually driving for a living.

05:32 You know, when a major asks you a question, it’s not really a question.

05:36 It’s not a question. It’s you’re going to do what I tell you to, even though it sounds like a question. You want an answer. Yeah. Exactly.

05:43 Absolutely. Absolutely. Now, so you started in the Army National Guard, but you also served in the Marines. Tell us how those paths intersected.

05:51 That that’s well, you know, one of our meetings in the National Guard, you know, National Guard were sitting back, everybody’s talking, you know, all of a sudden I hear this, I like, what is this coming? What is going on here? What’s wrong with this guy right here? Let alone somebody said, “Yeah, he’s an ex-Marine.” And he does that whenever he feels the urge to let something out of his body. I’m like, “Dude, I want to do what he’s doing.” He had the shiniest shoes, the creases in his clothes, the best haircut, the walk like a statue. And I’m like, you know, within a few months, a couple days after high school graduation, I was on my way to a boot camp over in Paris Island, South Carolina. Oh, yeah.

06:36 That’s a hot place. It hot with a lot of fleas and a lot of spit and a lot of demands and a lot of pressure. Oh yeah.

06:45 Now, how long were you in the Marines? How long in the army?

06:48 Army National Guard is it was two years and a couple months. It took the Marines the little bit to have the Army release me so that I could go, you know, 247 active duty. So, two years in the two and a half years in the Tennessee National Guard and then I went to a second boot camp, you know. So, who does two boot camps, you know—

07:15 Rodney Clay?

07:16 The Yeah, the Marine said, ” that that’s not tough enough, son. That that that’s Boy Scouts compared to what we’re getting ready to put you on.” Really? Really? So, I was in I did my first my I signed up for four years and I got out and I was in Oceanside, California. And I didn’t know what I was going to do. I walked town for a little while. I kept my bags underneath the laundry mat where it was warm and I just had a decision to make. Do I want to go home or do I want to stay or what am I going to do with my life? And within a matter of two, three days, I was taking a little green bus back on base at Camp Pendleton and I was in for another 30 years. Yeah—

08:01 Rodney, I’m sure everybody out there listening is thinking the same thing I am. Thank you for your service and simply.

08:08 Oh, you’re welcome. It’s a way of life. It’s a way of life that you get used to. And it’s all I knew jumping from high school, you know. I knew nothing else. It’s basically without the military you’re I’m like what am I going to do you know so I my last four years I decided to ease my way out so my last four years I did the reserves you know so it was like part military and ease my way into the civilian life so that was a the best decision that I could say for myself you know so I could take the blunt force. I didn’t want to take the blunt for force of the civilian ward. Hit me in the face of not knowing what to do with it.

08:54 Gotcha. 30 years, three decades in the Marines. I’m sure you saw a lot of stuff.

08:59 Yes, sir. The things that that you that goes through military, it’s kind of like an everyday life, you know. It’s like a job. You and the people and the brotherhood and the people will have your back. So, it’s kind of like this is it. This is what I’m made for. Yeah. Now, you did some tours.

09:18 Yes, sir. I did. I did two years in Iraq. I did was it two I think it was two years in Afghanistan. All but one was ordered. You know, I was ordered to go to these places. The last one was volunteer. Reason was volunteer because, you know, I had a lot of friends. You know, my friends were there. Some of my friends were still there. Some of my friends, you know, never made it out breathing out of there. So it’s kind of it was like for me within myself to go back and live a life that I was used to. You know, you know, you got people who are used to what we do in the military to people who are used to what they do here in the civilian world. So, it’s really like no big deal. This is what we do.

10:06 What was your role when you were in Iraq and Afghanistan? Well, Iraq, it was more of armor personnel. I drove the M1, the M1 Abrams. That was my main job in Iraq. Both tours. And you know there were times where things would break down and you’re sitting in the hot sun and you’re waiting on the repair guy to come and fix or a track might roll off your equipment and you got to find a way to put it back on or you’re hoping that the engineers are finding everything so there’s no harm done to you or your friends, you know, as they’re in front of you. So, that was my main role in Iraq and my main role. And after, you know, I got kind of a little bit bored with driving and bouncing around and my little peanut head poking around in a little hole, you know, and the hot sweatiness inside, you know, it’s already 110 to 130° in some of these areas.

11:09 Inside this piece of equipment, it’s double of what’s outside with nothing blowing on you, but a fan that’s blowing hot air into your face. I go, I’m good. So, I switched up careers inside the military and went amphibious assault unit which dealt, you know, first marines out of Camp Pendleton, which dealt with helicopters and the Navy played a big role in that part with riding with the Navy on, we call them six-packs. You go out for six months with the Navy, you do training, and you’re, you know, you’re making yourself ready for whatever the military needs you to do. You’re listening to Rodney Clay here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Rodney’s telling a lot of us about his time 30 plus years in the military. First the Army, National Guard, then the Marines.

12:00 Now Rodney, I’d have to ask you this question since we’re talking about trucking. Also, how did your career in the military impact or influence your career as a driver?

12:11 Because of the service I was giving guys outside of driving the M1 Abram. If we’re not out in the field, you know, you do have regular bases in some of these places. You need water, you need food, you need gasoline, you need supplies, you need— So, if I’m not driving my Abram, I’m driving a tanker full of water or I’m driving a tanker full of diesel fuel or I’m driving a flatbed with food on it from people out in the field or I’m driving, you know, a garbage truck picking up the garbage or I’m driving a truck where you’re literally cleaning out, you know, the restrooms. That’s a dirty job, but somebody has to do it. Go, you know, it was a service that I was just wanting to drive and, you know, and it was also a way to me as I’m riding down these roads that the air would hit me because I’m wide open and it was hot, you know, like for my enjoyment also cuz it’s like, oh man, it’s so hot out here.

13:08 So that’s how I kind of got into driving in the civilian world.

13:13 Gotcha. Gotcha. Now, in your time in Iraq and Afghanistan, you’ve kind of laid a picture out for us, a be a very vibrant picture there. This totally up to you. We totally respect if it’s something you don’t want to touch on, but I’m sure in those situations you saw some dicey things.

13:32 Yes, sir. There’s a lot of, you know, it’s a thing that there’s days where you think about it and you really can mess yourself up with inside your with inside yourself of thinking about it 247. And you know, the first time I saw combat as a young kid, I was helped by another guy because, you know, I got scared and I hit the ground and you know, I kind of like threw up and I laid myself in my own by you know, excuse my express my own vomit because I was that scared and I had another guy just grab me by the neck and he said, “You can either stay here and smell like your vomit or you can get up and you can help us what we need to do.” And you know that gave me a lot of encouragement because he was a veteran and here I am a young kid and it gives you some heart you know it gives you the heart like you know me being that big football star in high school is nothing compared to what I do now. Me being the kid who was in the drama class or the Spanish class is nothing compared to what I do now.

14:39 So you have to I had to prepare myself emotionally and mentally to see the things that I seen and it took a while. It took yeah it took some time. I understand that’s we certainly again thank you very much for your service in the military for this country and we certainly thank you for the driver that you are now and I guess all that experience in the military probably would help you a lot in staying the course as a driver and driveaway.

15:18 Absolutely. Absolutely. It gives you the not the it gives you the patience. That’s the to go through the things that’s out here. And patience is a big thing that you need in driveaway. Driveaway. And being a truck driver is like it’s just like the weather. One day it’s nice, bright, and sunny and the next day you got a hurricane facing and you just have to prepare yourself on knowing what to do and when to do it. And it’s not all that bad. It really is. Just work your way through it. I would imagine it gives you not only patience but also perspective.

15:53 Absolutely. Absolutely. And you know I’m not the best and I probably won’t be the best but you can’t you got a good when you got a good team around you. Including when I was in the military and being out here with Norton you know things are done a lot smoother. You know if you think you’re by yourself you know you’re not. You know, Norton will help you just as my friends help me in the military and you’ll make your way through it. It’s all a team effort. Those are some great words spoken by Rodney Clay here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. Rodney is a man that’s been driving for a long time. Served in the military for a long time, three plus decades. Rodney, thank you so much for everything you’ve done. We’re honored to have you on board as one of our premier drivers here at Norton Transport. And we thank you.

16:45 Yeah, you’re appreciate it.

16:46 Thanks for joining us, Rodney. Have a good evening and be safe out there.

16:50 Thank you very much, son. I appreciate it.

16:55 Six-Figure Trucker is brought to you by Norton Transport. Norton Transport is a driveaway trucking company that customers can rely on. It offers excellent independent contract driving opportunities to professional, courteous, and qualified drivers that can provide the kind of service we deliver. If you’re interested in learning more about Norton or just want to subscribe to the show, check out Six-FigureTrucker.com. That’s Six-FigureTrucker.com.