Nate McCarty of Greeley poses near his Share the Road semitrailer in Harrington, Maine. McCarty, a professional truck driver, is helping transport thousands of wreaths to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia for Wreaths Across America on Saturday. (For The Tribune/Nate McCarty)
Nate McCarty’s sleigh this holiday season is a 74-foot long, 13-foot-tall semitrailer. But he’s delivering something more meaningful than toys.McCarty, a 45-year-old Greeley resident and a Gulf War veteran, is part of a convoy transporting hundreds of thousands of handmade wreaths from Columbia Falls, Maine, where they are made, to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia as part of Wreaths Across America Day.The national event takes place Saturday in cemeteries across the U.S., including Greeley, to honor fallen soldiers.McCarty left Greeley this past week to pick up the truck in Baltimore, then drove it to Maine to stock it with wreaths. He officially hit the road Sunday and is carrying 3,900 of the 405,000 wreaths being delivered.”It’s a prestigious thing to be in the main convoy,” McCarty said on the phone Wednesday during a stop in New Jersey. “It’s a coveted spot.”There were originally 35 trucks in a 5-mile-long convoy that left Maine. All but a dozen have exited off to deliver wreaths to other, smaller U.S. cemeteries participating in Wreaths Across America. But McCarty is among those who have stayed the course toward Arlington.The semis regularly switch positions within the convoy. On Wednesday, McCarty’s trailer led the pack.McCarty, a 1990 Greeley West High School graduate, has 26 years of professional trucking experience under his belt. He lives in Greeley but works at ABF Freight in Denver. He’s a member of American Trucking Associations and an ambassador for America’s Road Team, a national public outreach program.McCarty also drives for the association’s Share the Road campaign, which since 1986 has traveled to schools to teach young motorists about distracted driving, blindspots and safely driving alongside semis.All reasons why he was chosen to join the convoy.”Usually these drivers in the convoy are the cream of the crop for their safe driving and experience,” McCarty said.Because Wreaths Across America is a nonprofit, it relies on trucking companies to donate their big rigs to haul the wreaths. McCarty is transporting the wreaths in a Share the Road truck, and splitting driving duties with a fellow professional from Albuquerque.The Wreaths Across America trek takes McCarty and crew from Maine through New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and finally Arlington Cemetery. They have made stops at local schools and VFWs and schools to do presentations.A documentary film crew also has followed the convoy during some legs of their trip, McCarty said.
A convoy carrying thousands of wreaths from Maine to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia stops in Skillman, New Jersey on Wednesday. Nate McCarty, a Greeley truck driver, is driving one of the trucks to help deliver the wreaths as part of Wreaths Across America. (For The Tribune/Nate McCarty)
This is McCarty’s fourth year with Wreaths Across America, but the third year in the convoy. He once volunteered to help lay the wreaths on the graves.McCarty was deployed to Saudi Arabia when he was 18. He didn’t serve with anyone who was killed in action. A classmate from Greeley West was killed in 2007 in Iraq.”I do this to honor the people I can,” McCarty said.State police escorts will sometimes shut down roads for them to safely pass; they closed the George Washington Bridge for them. The roads and overpasses are sometimes lined with supporters and decorations as they pass, McCarty said.Along the way they have been joined by Patriot Guard Writers and Blue Star and Gold Star families. McCarty has connected with families who are still grieving the loss of their loved one in combat.”It’s an emotional rollercoaster you share with them,” he said. “You learn about their lives and why (their relatives) wanted to get in the military.”Participating over the years with Wreaths Across America – and meeting surviving families of those who were killed in combat – has given McCarty perspective on his time in the service, he said.
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Wreaths Across America will take place across the country on Saturday. Linn Grove Cemetery in Greeley, 1700 Cedar Ave., will host its Greeley ceremony beginning at 10 a.m. Volunteers are needed to lay wreaths on about 1,500 wreaths.
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“The wreaths are not decoration. They’re to honor the service of the fallen and their sacrifice,” McCarty said. “It’s meaningful, especially, when you talk to the families. I realize what I put my family through. I was 18 and thought I was invincible. You don’t know your parents are a wreck the whole time you’re gone. It really brings it home for me.”Greeley will host its annual Wreaths Across America event at 10 a.m. Saturday morning at Linn Grove Cemetery, 1700 Cedar Ave. It’s one of 1,400 locations in all 50 states participating in the ceremony. Volunteers are needed to help lay the wreaths on 1,500 graves in Linn Grove.Chris Ruth is the local coordinator for Wreaths Across America. A Greeley veteran delivering wreaths to Arlington Cemetery is “really cool,” she said.”It’s amazing and neat,” she said. “It’s got to be super for someone like Nate who has served as a veteran.”– Adam Poulisse is the go and do reporter for the Greeley Tribune. Let him know of anything fun going on in the area by calling him at 970-392-4440 or emailing him at apoulisse@greeleytribune.com.
