At Centerline Drivers, we thank all of our veterans for their service. Here is one story of what being a veteran means to our employees.
John Trahan
Director of Business Development – Centerline Drivers
John Trahan comes from a military family. He served in the Air Force from 1985-89, assigned to the 31st security police squadron in Homestead, Fla., where he worked with a global security group, spending lonely nights guarding flight lines, aircraft and other Air Force assets and personnel. Between important global security work during the Cold War, Iran Contra and strife in Central America were a lot of lonely nights alone guarding the main gate, learning to develop patience and remain vigilant.
“Patience is a virtue when it comes to being in the Air Force or a sales leader,” he said. “You gain patience but through that patience you have to remain vigilant to your duties and your post.”
He’s kept that lesson through his work in transportation and logistics, including the past eight years with Centerline.
“You have to be patient with your team, drivers, clients,” he said, noting that it’s important to be engaged with your teammates and trust everyone to do the right thing.”
“Being in the military gave me good values and the belief in the team and working hard in everything you do,” he said. “TrueBlue values veterans. We take a lot of pride and everyone is so focused on helping and contributing to the mission. At our yearly sales meetings in Centerline, we have veterans stand up and be recognized for our service, but it’s more than that. I’ve seen from our recruiters and leadership that we’ve done everything possible to connect veterans to great job opportunities.”
And it translates to the drivers and clients, too. One Centerline client — Coastal Pacific Food — delivers food to military overseas via West Coast ports that put the food on ships to go to far-flung locations where the military is deployed. They also deliver to naval and air force bases in California, Nevada and Arizona and Centerline tries to find drivers that are vets so they can continue that service.
“You should see the heart and soul they put into making sure their containers don’t miss the ships going overseas,” he said.
