#33: From Volvos to Military Big Rigs, Part 1

My TC, my truck commander, was super, super late, like an hour late, and finally they showed up,

and I'm like, hey, what's, what's going on? Why, why are you late? Because what had happened was

where they put the tent, they put it on a slope, and all the wash from the massive rainstorm came

down and just washed out the whole tent. And so they were up all night sandbagging, putting,

filling sandbags, trying to like deter the water. So after that incident, I stayed in my truck.

Where should we pitch the tent? It's supposed to rain right there. There's a creek there,

we'll put it right in there. Yeah, a lot of fun. Hello and welcome one and all to the Life Plus

Cars podcast. Hello out there to our community. We're excited to have you back here for another

episode. We have a very special guest and I'm going to pass it over to Brendan here to introduce

our guest as we, as we always enjoy having new people on the podcast. So Brendan, take it away.

Oh Ian, that's an understatement. We love having guests on the show. So this is a really special

one for multiple reasons. To give a little bit of a backstory to this guest is this guest reached

out to us because they listen to the Life Plus Volvos episode and they are also an avid Volvo

listener. So we started talking with this person and it come to find out that not only do they love

Volvos and other particular cars, but also that they were in the military, the army to be specific,

and they drove trucks in multiple different countries while they're in the army

for X number of years. So I would like to introduce as our guest for this very special episode,

I'm very excited. We have with us Caitlin, who please introduce yourself is here to talk about

all of that. Well, thank you guys very much for having me. I'm very excited and yay. Yes, Caitlin,

thank you very much for joining us. We're glad to have you here on the podcast. Yes, thank you so

much. So to start things off, please talk a little bit about Volvos. So the reason you reached out

is because you're a Volvo person. So please talk about that. So yes, absolute fanatic. Ian,

I think we both owned an 850 if I'm not mistaken. Yes. Oh, yes. Yes. So my first car ever, I think,

and don't quote me on the year, but it was a 97 850. It was black and we called it the Black

Ninja. Yes, I got this car in 2006. And it was actually my high school car. I drove it till

about 2008, I think. But oh my God, so many, so many stories about this car. One of my favorites

is just how, you know, how they were built. They were they were tanks. Absolute tanks.

Oh my God, absolute tanks. Like I remember my dad was cutting it was parked under a tree and my

Ted, I don't know why he didn't move the car, but was cutting this tree limb off. And it was

probably, I don't know, it's a tree limb. I don't couple, it's really big. Yeah. And he dropped a

tree limb on it. Dented. Oh, yeah. Dented the passengers, passenger side front end, just gave

it some character. So it was yeah, just added added character to it. And then the other story

that I just absolutely love about this car is it was in a car accident in a parking lot. It was

parked. I was working and this gentleman comes into where I'm working and says, Hey, does anybody own

a black Volvo? And I said, Oh my God, yes, I do. He's like, you were just hit in the parking lot.

And I said, Oh my God, so run out looking at the car. I can't see any damage on the car. And I

turned him like, sir, where where was I hit? He's like, I don't know. The police are coming.

We'll we'll get with the police and we'll get back to you. So the police come,

they go and watch the video. And then the police officer walks out and he points to this. It's

like a six to eight inch scratch on the driver's side front end. And I'm like, Oh, okay, that's

that's all the damage. And he's like, Yeah. And then he from that video was able to identify the car

that hit me. And we walk to the car and you can't see any damage, but you get around to the front

and this driver's whole front end on his driver's side was completely pushed back into this guy's

tire. And he had just like, it was it was so bad that the tire was rubbing on the metal and you

could you could hear it. And I don't think he could turn the car. But I was just so impressed

at like, how much of a tank they are. I had a I had an eight or six inch scratch on the car.

And this guy had completely destroyed, destroyed his a testament to the build quality of those

Volvo's. And I mean, they're safety first for Volvo, right? Like you said, they're tanks.

Absolutely fantastic. They'll go through anything. Oh, absolutely. Well, and to kind of pee back off

of that, we also had another one. It wasn't mine, but it was the family's was I think it was a 2000

v 70 that we hit a moose with. And yeah, hit a moose with it. It was I mean, that's no joke.

We called it the blue moose. It was blue with tan interior. Yep, drove right under the chest

of the moose and hit his front end. No damage to the car. Crazy. It was insane. Like no damage to

the car. Wow. Crazy. That's amazing. Truly, I mean, truly tanks like that. That I that the

moose thing really baffles me that that because I mean, you hear horror stories of people on

accidents with moose and the thing just didn't even bat an eye. Yeah. Wow. Right under the chest

of it was it was I mean, because you know how low the I don't know if you've ever seen the v 70s

are pretty low. Oh, yeah. To the ground and I mean moose are tall. So you said it was the family

crash was your mom driving mom was driving. Oh, okay. So it was it was the high capability

stock car driving of mom. Yes, that's what got it. Yeah. Yeah. No, yeah, we we hit a moose with

the blue one. And then after that, I had so after the the black ninja, I had the silver bullet,

which was a 2001 s 80. And I would say out of all the cars I own, probably my favorite,

because it was just it felt very zippy to me. I just I just love how zippy. Yes, a lot of a lot of

flagship sedan of Volvo, of course. Oh, it's fantastic. And the room I mean, the trunk space

I had was just incredible because that was my car I had when I was I think in college. And I played,

you know, basketball and soccer and all that. Oh, yeah, that's a car like you're going like 8090

down the highway. It almost feels like it like settles into the pavement. And it's just like

hunkers into the road. Oh, yeah, you don't even feel it. So much power, so much comfort. Yep,

amazing cars. Love those s 80s. Love it. Love it. And then the last one I owned was a 2012 XC

60 R design that I bought in 2017. When I came back from Germany, I was in the army and I had

PCS from Germany. And I was headed to Colorado. And I needed a car because I didn't have one

while I was overseas. And I bought that one with 68,000 miles on it. And I sold it this year,

actually. And it had 238,000 miles on it. Bravo. We put some miles on that. Wow. 170.

Yeah. Yeah. 170,000 on it. And loved, loved that car. I'm actually in the market for another one

possibly. Right now. Yep. Keep it in the family. Yeah. Love the Volvo. Can't go wrong with them.

If not, not a new Volvo? No, no. No. Now, why is that? I don't like as much as I love Volvos,

I do not like the screens. I can't. You are in good company here on Life Plus Cars. Here, here.

Being of those giant screens to do everything. Yeah. I can't. I just, I can't. I like knobs.

I like dials. I just like original. Simple. Yes. Simple. Easy to understand. Yes. Absolutely.

Less stuff that can fail. Oh, I completely agree. Totally get it. Absolutely. Yeah. Oh my gosh. So

I'm curious, Caitlin, was so with my family, my mom more or less like stumbled into owning a Volvo

and then like so for siblings had them and so had your had your parents owned Volvos for a time or

I was curious what led them to owning so many. To answer, no, no, not really. My mom had always

owned Sobs. Oh, I don't know. Don't ask me what years or anything like that. Yeah. I know. I know

Brendan. I know you like Sobs. You like a Sob. Keeping it Swedish. Yes, she did. She loved Sobs. They

had pictures of Sobs. I think they had a red one, a black one, a blue one, a ton of them. I think

what ended up happening was my parents had done some research on what was the safest car for a

good price and this kind of thing. At least they started to have kids like you and your brother.

Once I started to take driving lessons, my parents were like, oh, we probably should start looking

at cars for her. So they did help me. I'm trying to remember. I think they helped me purchase it

and then I had to pay for like gas and insurance if I remember correctly. Yeah. But yeah, they just

had done done research on what was the safest car to get a kid in and Volvos were were it and then

after that it kind of just exploded. Oh, they're fantastic. I mean, leather, you can't go wrong

leather, he can see it's I mean, yeah. And then they're like, I mean, the word that we keep using

describing tanks, they're absolutely yes, tanks. Well, no, I mean, I was going to say that you were

in the army and then you drove like semi trucks, like we're talking big trucks, not like, you know,

a half ton pickup folks, we're talking like semi trucks and drove tractor trailers in the army

in how many different countries? 22, 22 different countries. So please. So

I have a lot of questions, but the first one is I need to ask this. So you're obviously,

you're a veteran. Yes, you're in the army, right? But so how, how did that start? And

how did you get into that field of like driving the truck? So that I'm very curious to start.

I have a family history, we can date back probably to World War two with men serving in the military.

My uncle, Herbie stormed the beaches of Normandy. He was on Omaha Beach. My grandfather, my grandfather,

my dad's dad, big Bubba was an 88 Mike, which I will get into more is that's what I was. He drove

doosan a half in the army during Korea. And then my other grandfather little Bubba was in the

Air Force and he was military police. And then my father was kind of the tail end of Vietnam.

He was in from like 74 to 78. Then my uncle was in desert storm. He was a Marine sniper.

And then my cousin was still is actually he's a Marine crew chief on helicopters. And then I

have several cousins and aunts and uncles who also were in the military throughout. So we've had a

really strong background in military. That's amazing. That's incredible. Thank you for you

and your extended family service. That's amazing. It's so awesome. That's awesome. Thank you. Well,

thank you for the support. I appreciate it. Absolutely. Yeah, definitely honored to have you

here. So thank you. I appreciate that. Okay, so that's that's the background for you. You have a

family history of people being in the army and military. And so you you kept that tradition

going. Yes, I wanted so I got done with college graduated college in 2012. Wasn't sure what I

wanted to do. I had this this, you know, bachelor of science degree and was like, Okay, what do I

do with it? Well, I might go in the army for a couple years and just try to figure things out. So

graduated college in 2012, went to the recruiter and signed up, actually ended up going in 2013.

But to answer your second part of the question was how did I get into driving trucks? Well,

there's a TV show called Ice Road Truckers. And some reason very good TV show. Very entertaining.

Loved semi trucks. I for some reason, little girl, I love them. Anytime I saw one, I'd always say,

Oh, that one has a sleeper. Oh, that one's this. And I just absolutely love them. So

one of the jobs that was offered to me was an 88 Mike, which is the it's called an MOS or

military occupation specialty. And it's a motor transport operator is what I was. So I was an

88 Mike in the army. And I went in as a specialist, which was my rank. And when I got done with

the army, I was a sergeant. So I only went up two pay grades, but that's for one pay grade. But

still for the layperson. Thank you for explaining. Because I don't have any military background. So

thank you for me neither. Appreciate that. Yeah. So that's cool, though. So like you went into it

and you could choose like you had that path option because you always like semi. Yes. So you were

gravitated to that. Oh, absolutely. And they kind of cater to that for you. Yep. For the most part.

That's great. Oh, yeah, it's fantastic. Yeah. Like so that now this is where like I'm really

curious. So the schooling or learning about it or like even getting to drive the trucks,

like did you have to get a CDL or an equivalent like an army standards to do it? Or like, how did

that work? Like to get like quote unquote certified. Yes. So you have to go to training,

you have to go to school. So the way the army works is you do your your basic training. It's

called BCT. So basic training. You go to that first. And that's 10 weeks. And there's several

bases throughout the United States where they have basic training. I was sent to Fort Leonard

Wood in Missouri. We also call it Fort Lost in the Woods just as a it's a joke. It's an army vote.

Sorry. Bad joke. Yeah, bad joke. No, no, no, good. No, bad joke. But a little caveat, a nice little

add on to that is my father was also at Fort Leonard Wood for his basic training. So he had

gone in 74. So 39 years ago, my father had been there the same time I was. So that was pretty

cool. But then yes, to answer your question, the training is called advanced individual training

or ATI or AIT sorry. And that was six weeks of training at Fort Leonard Wood to drive trucks.

And basically what you do is you're trained on all the trucks that the military has. So like you

drive Humvees, you drive five tons, which are called LMTVs. Those are your troop carriers.

The tractor trailers, which I'm going to get into that was the M915A5 that I drove, which is my

favorite truck. And then you drive PLS's, which is not my favorite truck, but they get you on the

basic ones. And then if you need to go to any specialty training like the HET, which I can talk

about, that's the heavy equipment transport. That's the big truck that transports tanks.

We did not get trained on that there because like I said, that's there's only specific units that

have further training at your unit for that truck. So yeah, six weeks. And then usually when you get

your permanent duty station, you go and you get more training at your permanent duty station,

which I ended, which ended up happening to me. I was lucky enough. And to segue into it, my first

duty station was Germany, Kaiser Schlotter in Germany. And I spent like another four or five

weeks getting trained on the tractor trailers they had there for us. So they sent you to Germany?

Yep. And then they continued your training there? Yes. On the rigs you were going to be driving?

Yes. Okay. So when was the first time that you actually like got behind the wheel and headed

down public roads? Like after all your training? After all my training. How scared were you? Or

not scared at all? Because I'm sure you were confident as hell. Oh, I was thrilled. I was so

I mean, I was ready to roll. Just like, let me add them. So as a vice versa, and I'm like,

I can do it. So you were that person that was in the classroom like, just let me get behind the

wheel. There's things bends in the middles and goes, let's let's put it this way. I was with my

driver trainer and he said, let's, he's like, I want you to feel how fast it can go going downhill.

So we had no trailer on we were bought. It's called Bob tailing. It was just

and we're going down the Audubon and we're coming down a hill. Now these trucks are like,

they go 65 like that's that's as fast as they go. Well, the we were doing a lot faster than that

just going down the hill and it just so I got a pretty good feel of how fast they can go.

But yeah, it was, oh my God, it was fantastic. It was it was so much fun. So to answer your

question. So I got there in January. I think I was done with training by end of February.

Okay. Okay. So pretty quick turn around. It started doing missions. Yeah. Yeah. So they

actually like put you in the truck and like go. Yeah. And that I mean, that's the way to the

best way to learn is to go and then you obviously learned more when you start going on missions.

Of course. There's nothing like real world experience. Yeah. Yeah. You learn about the

different loads and like the different things that you can haul and the weights and then

certain things have to you can strap down with 10,000 pound straps, other things you need to

chain down. And I've never chained anything down in my life. So I think we had two up armored

Humvees was one mission and you can't use 10,000 pound straps in those because those those together

are that's your that's your load limit on your on your trailer. So you have to have to chain

those down. I learned how to chain. Yeah, I learned how to chain things down. I learned about

containers too, because we transported 40 foot connexes, which is a shipping container.

Then you have pineapples, which lock on the four ends when you when the when they load it.

And then you throw some straps over the top if you want to be extra safe, which I always did

anyway, because you just want to make sure is as dad say, when they strap something down,

it's not going anywhere. Yeah, you don't want to lose a load. No, that wouldn't be no, that's the

word. Yeah, could you, Caitlin? Yeah, could you explain pineapples? I don't know if I miss something

or different type of load. Yeah, different type. Yeah, what's the pineapple? Sorry. No, so on our

trailers. Oh my god, that's so funny. So on our trailers, you have at the very end of the trailer

and at the very front of the trailer, you have this, it looks like a pineapple sticking up.

You can you can push it up or you can like push it down. So the trailer is flat because we had

flatbed trailers. We didn't have reefers or anything that you see on the road state. We

had flatbeds. So you can push it up or you can push it down. When you're loading a connex,

there are these holes on the end of the connexes and you push the pineapple up and you twist it.

And what it does is it essentially locks the connex in place on the container container.

Yeah, the container. Sorry, yes. Connex, yes, sorry. Yes, no, no, no, no, I get that with the

containers from the line of work I do. I understand that, yes. Yes, it's basically just a locking

device that locks the container onto the flatbed. Yes, and you've got one point. But it looks like

a pineapple. It looks exactly like a pineapple. And that's why we call it, again, the army has

names for everything. Oh, sure. Pineapples, yes. Yes, thank you. Locking device, yes.

I'm here at a truck stop and you see someone pull in with a connex container,

and it's a flatbed spaghetti. It has that pineapple going on in it. Yeah, how's that pineapple?

Love it. Oh, yeah, I appreciate the run down there. Yeah, thank you.

Yep. So, but you said earlier, you drove these trucks in 22 different countries.

That's amazing. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. And I'm sure you have absolutely zero notion

and against no stories whatsoever. It was all just perfect. Nothing bad ever had,

especially in the army. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. No, I've got, I mean, I have a couple of stories

that I mean, I can share. Well, D'Oscar said, do you have some stories you could share with us

about your experience driving these trucks in these 22 different countries? We'd love to hear

absolutely. So one of my favorite missions that I did my entire four years I was over

there is called Operation Anaconda. And it happened in 2016. It's not the same as the

operation that happened over in Afghanistan. If people are listening and they Google it,

there's two different Operation Anacondas. This one was a joint exercise with NATO,

with our NATO allies. And it occurred from, I want to say June 7th to June 17th. It was 10 days.

It was 30,000 troops from 24 different countries. And like I said, they were all, it was all NATO.

My unit, which was 66TC or the 66th Transportation Company, we were responsible for moving all of

the equipment for this operation from the port in Bremerhaven in Germany to where the exercise

was going to be taking place. So we went into Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, Poland, like we were,

we were all through. That's amazing. Yeah, we're all through your just standing up. So we'd go to

the port, we'd load up our trucks, we'd go to wherever we needed to go, drop the stuff, drive

back. And this is what we did. So we stood them up. We got everybody ready for the exercise.

They did their exercise. When the exercise was done, we came back in, loaded all their stuff,

and drove everything back to the port for them. Or the rail. We used a lot of the rail systems

as well. But this was my overall favorite mission because it was three weeks. And we got,

I don't want to say we got to do whatever we wanted, but kind of like the hat was off kind

of thing where we weren't, we weren't in Garrison, like we weren't, we didn't have to go to formation

every day. We weren't doing PT every day. Three times. We kind of, we kind of like got to just go

be truck drivers. And it was just a lot of fun. So like one example, I got to sleep out on the back

of my trailer at one night. I was in, it was in Latvia. We were on post. I didn't want to sleep

in the tent. And you didn't have trucks that were sleepers, like they had a cab, right?

Because like for the listener, right? Like a sleeper, 18 wheeler, is it actually has like

a bed behind where the driver seat is. And you actually can sleep in the cab. But the ones you

drove did not have that. Cause you just said you sleep in the trailer. Well, it did. So they did

have sleep. They did have a, so they didn't have a true sleeper that you see on the roads today.

It's not that there was a space behind the driver seat where you could put a cot, one of the army

Cods. Oh, okay. Which I did. I did sleep back. I have a story about that. What happened one night

with that, but I'll, I'll get to that. Cause I, my favorite story is sleeping on the trailer. So

we're in Latvia and it was, it was gorgeous cause the, the, there was no light pollution. We're,

we're on a base that was set up out on the field and we had no light pollution. So I'm on the back

of my trailer and just sleeping under the stars. And that was, you know, just normally we wouldn't

be allowed to do that. Cause you know, usually we're in Garrison or we're in the barracks or

something like that. So no, but to answer your question, yes, I did sleep in the back of the

truck a lot. One night this is massive, massive rainstorm. And I had, I had chosen during this

operation not to sleep in the tent cause it was just easier to stay in the truck

to get up and go for missions. So I stayed in my truck and you know, perfect night, great night,

slept soundly. Next morning we were supposed to leave the post at 730 to head out and go pick

up some equipment and my, my driver or my, my TC, my truck commander was super, super late,

like an hour late. And finally they showed up and I'm like, Hey, what's, what's going on? Why,

why are you late? And they said they had been up for four hours dealing with the rain because

what had happened is where they put the tent, they put it on a slope and all the wash from the

massive rainstorm came down and just washed out the whole tent. And so they were up all night

sandbagging, filling sandbags, trying to like deter the water. So after that incident, I stayed

in my truck the rest of the, the rest of the, the life. Um, but yeah, just, just to give you a

little taste of army life. Like, yeah, there, there you go. That's a good taste. Where should we

pitch the tent? It's supposed to rain right there. Yeah. There's a creek there. We'll put it right

in there. Yeah. Right on the slope. Yeah. A lot of fun. It was so, so funny. So yeah, after that,

that my truck commander stayed, stayed in the other truck and didn't sleep in the tent the

rest of the month. Yeah. Okay. Interesting. Now I gotta ask, I gotta ask this because I'm curious.

I'm sure Ian is too. And I bet the listeners too, like any accidents. Me personally, no,

was I in a truck when an accident happened? Yes. Okay. So I don't know how you want to,

you want to loop that, but yeah, just this, just because I mean, there's got to be right. I mean,

if you're, if you're driving trucks in that many different countries, like it's, oh, it's, I wouldn't

either gets run into or something's going to happen or even a flat tire, like stuff's going

to happen, right? Oh, absolutely. And I know the trick I learned. Well, I can. So, so to answer

your question, I was in the truck when the accident happened. We were very fortunate and

over in Germany, they're very strict about their laws. When you get in an accident being in the

military, the military is usually always at fault because that's how it, the dice rolls are kind

of whatever. So what had happened is we got, we were in a construction zone, I was not driving,

my private was driving and this van tried to pass us in a construction zone and he ended up hitting

our trailer and I have to give kudos to my, my private because my private did panic and almost

ran us off the road, but managed to control himself and we didn't hit the guardrail,

but he managed to stop. And when he stopped, the van was wedged between our trailer and the

concrete barrier. Yeah. So no one was hurt. No one was hurt. Everyone was okay. Everyone was just

shaken. And I mean, was that technically your fault? I mean, no, that's, so that was gonna

sit like that's the way you describe it. That's not your guys fault. No, it wasn't our fault. So

Polozy, which is the German police show up and immediately the driver was like, Oh, they hit me

this, giving a whole spiel. And so the Polozy were like, Yeah, okay, let's measure your van. So

I kid you not, they pull out a ruler. They have like this ruler, like a collapsible like construction

ruler. They pull it out and measure this guy's van. And I forget how many meters over he was

like on the line. And so they ticketed him and he was the one at fault. Justification. Yeah,

Justin, we were, we were so happy because I called my sergeant. I was like, Hey, it wasn't us because

he had chewed my butt out for this and that. And then we called him like, Hey, the Polozy say

it was his fault. We're good. He was like, Oh, okay, good. And there was no damage to our truck.

He didn't hit any of the tires. He just hit one of the sides of our, of the trailer,

kind of in the middle. Yeah. I mean, that, I mean, you know, there's no such thing as a good

accident, but in my mind, that's a good accident. Cause no one got hurt. Correct. And you can drive

away from it. That is a win. That's crazy. I love that. They show up and they get out like the

little like retractable ruler. They're like, Oh, no, I could not believe it. So it was,

yes, justified. It was, I'm going to start keeping a ruler in my car. Right? Yeah.

Yeah. You never know when it might come in handy. Yeah, absolutely. Oh my God. And then the other

accident that I witnessed that was the most horrific for me, again, no one was seriously

injured, but really bad. It was a jackknife. So I don't know if you know what a jackknife is.

I mean, I do, but you go, you explain it for the listener in case they don't know what a jackknife is.

So a jackknife is when your trailer, you know, usually your trailer falls behind your truck.

Well, usually it's when the trailer swings around and it's almost parallel to your cab

of your truck. It's not good because it does. It looks like it looks like a jackknife if you've

ever, you know, kind of partially opened a knife. So we were, I don't ask me where, I think we may

have been in Hungary or Latvia. We were leaving the base. We had just left the base. We just dropped

off our load. So we were empty. We had nothing on our trailer. And for those who drive, you know,

when you're loaded down, you have kind of like a little bit more, you know, weight on you and your

trailer's not as, is floaty, we can, we can say. So we're leaving the base. It started to rain.

We were in the mountains. We were going around some S curves. And all of a sudden,

I was in the back, I was in the middle and the lead truck was in front of us. And you see his,

it was so weird. You see his trailer kind of lift up a little bit. And then you see his brake

lights come on. And then all of a sudden you just see the trailer. You see the trailer starting

to push the truck. And then you see the truck started to face us. So we were like head on with

the other truck. Oh, so his, his truck, yes. It was a combination of speed and the S curves.

And we didn't have, we weren't weighted down. So he had been used to, this is what we talked about

later. He had been used to having a load and going that speed and keeping him grounded.

Which for the listener, like this is a great example of like when you're in inclement weather,

whether it's rain, snow or whatever, and you have like semi trucks just like blow by you on the

interstate. Slow down. It's like, I mean, but, but like, you know, to be fair, maybe they're not

speeding. They're just, they're going the speed limit, but they're going, it's because they have

a ton of weight on them. They have way more traction than you do. So I get what you're saying. And

they're empty. It's just a lot easier for the trailers, because I've driven even just a regular

truck with a trailer. And if there's nothing on the trailer and it's snowy out, right, and you

go around a corner or something, like the trailer will just start to like slide out behind. It's like,

whoa, okay. Mine of its own. Oh, absolutely. It was, it was, yeah. So he was, so we were like

face to face with the cab and what ended up happening. He jackknifed so bad. So the nice

thing about our trucks is we had the M915A5, which is the nomenclature for the truck that we

drove. It was a freight liner. It was a tractor trailer. Okay, freight line. Yeah, it was freight

liner. Yeah. What had happened was is the trailer had come around and it had, it had severed two of

the airbags that it floats because the cab kind of floats. I don't know if you can explain it better

than me, but it floats on these airbags. There's like two points. Not all trucks are like that,

but a lot of the, yes, the 18-wheelers have like, they're these airbags for the cab. Yes.

So the cab just like, has like this almost cushioned ride where the rest of it takes up

the frame and everything takes up all the suspension, but the cab just floats. Yeah,

and he had severed, so he had severed both of those. That's how bad he jackknifed. He almost

severed the cab, like he almost cut the cab completely off. And he walked away from that.

They walked, they, everyone was okay. Everyone was okay. I think he was a little concussed because

it happened. We, my driver dodged them and I watched and he slammed his head into the,

into the window. Yeah, you're supposed to be, so here's another thing. You're supposed to be wearing

your helmet, which is called an ACH when you're driving and they did not have their ACHs on when

they were driving. And ever since then I saw that accident, I've always worn my helmet. Yeah.

After that, that would like a really interesting, interesting. But everyone was okay. The truck,

I think we, we did, we drove all the way from Latvia back to Germany. And then they just,

they fixed it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, just didn't have that cushiony air ride. No, I did not. It was,

and he drove a little slower. That's an unfortunate accident, but anyone you can walk away from it.

It's, it's a great, it's a good accident. God bless. Absolutely. Yeah. For sure. So all, I mean,

and I'm sure there's like, it just, you know, all of these different little stories right with,

Oh, so many. So many. Yeah. So many. Yeah. Just like, you know, driving in the convoy,

right? Like one truck pulls over. It's just like, what are you doing? He's like, I have to go pee.

Random stuff, right? I gotta imagine there's just, there's so many stories because you,

because how many years? Six years. I did six years. So six years, 22 countries. That's amazing.

That's amazing. How many, how many miles do you think you drove roughly? Just an estimate, roughly.

God. Because I mean, I'm sure it's impossible to track, right? It's, it's hard to track. And,

and my thing too is like, when I was in Germany, I drove probably the first year and a half or so

in Germany. And then I was pushed into an operations role. So I kind of took out, or I kind of took

over sending trucks out on missions. So I would say a hundred thou, maybe a hundred thousand,

maybe a little bit more. I mean, over my six year career, probably more than that. But I would say

while in Germany, like a hundred thousand, because we were, we were doing missions. Oh God,

like every, every, I mean, every week you had a mission, you were going somewhere. We were caught.

That was the nice thing about Germany is they, they say in the army, like you train for your

MOS, but you never do it. When you go to Germany, you train for your MOS and you actually do it.

So we were, we were a truck company. We were, we were very, very busy. We, we hauled everything

for the army in Germany throughout the entire, well, the European map. Yeah.

It's amazing. It's like, you're, this is a great glimpse into like the things that happen behind

the scenes. You never think about these things, but you're keeping it going. That's amazing.

Well, logistics, logistics moves the army people. And like you just said, people don't think of that.

And without logistics, you don't have an army. Absolutely. Yeah. So yeah.

Hey everyone, this is Ian again. That concludes part one of our conversation with Caitlyn.

And we will be sharing part two of the conversation coming up with next week's episode where Caitlyn

will share many more stories from her experiences in the military and traveling abroad, driving those

big rigs and other memorable vehicles that she encountered. So again, tune in next week

as Brendan and I curate more car conversations with Caitlyn. And we look forward to talking to you

soon on the Life Plus Cars podcast.

#33: From Volvos to Military Big Rigs, Part 1

About this episode

Jeep Commander

Volvo V70

Volvo S80

Volvo XC60 R-Design

safest car

leather

Tesla Semi

semi trucks

tractor trailers

88 Mike

Ice Road Truckers

MOS (military occupation specialty)

CDL

Basic Training (BCT)

Advanced Individual Training (AIT)

Humvee

Palletized Load System (PLS)

Heavy Equipment Transport (HET)

Bob tailing

strapping down loads

connex container

18 wheeler

cot

military truck

accident fault in military vehicles

construction zone

guardrail

concrete barrier

Freightliner

airbags (cab suspension)

air ride

convoy

big rigs

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