America’s Truck has been rolling since former President Donald Trump was voted into office in 2016, parking its wheels in the National Mall in Washington for the first time that same autumn.
A glorious American rapture on wheels—licked by fire and draped in stars and stripes—best describes this big rig semi-trailer truck owned by Brad Chase, 66, a trucker from Billings, Montana.
He arrived and jaws dropped. Supporters of President Trump took the opportunity to do a walk around and touch and marvel at Chase’s masterpiece. Since then, he and his 18-wheeler, named “Forged by Fire,” have been lured around the country to attend patriotic events.
In 2019, Mr. Chase, a former firefighter who hung his hat after 9/11, rolled down Interstate 75 with a motorcade of 60 Jeeps carrying Gold Star families. The path was all clear. A police escort on motorcycles held traffic at bay. All highway entrances and exits were blocked in a show of respect for the families as they were ushered to Cincinnati’s stadium on a red carpet. At the ballgame, the Leap Frogs—a precision parachute team of Navy SEALs—would descend into the stadium to great fanfare.
A crack in his voice was heard as Mr. Chase spoke to The Epoch Times, recalling the moment.
“Law enforcement shut down the interstate so that we could take these people up the interstate without any problems up to the ballgame,” he said, “honoring these people.”
Mr. Chase has a brother who served on the USS Forrestal and a cousin in the Navy SEALs. His dad was a forest ranger, whom he fought wildland fires with until 1977 while living in Minnesota; afterward, he became a full-time firefighter for a decade longer.
“I retired from fire service, I still needed something to give,” he said. “You just don’t stop being a policeman, you just don’t stop being a firefighter ... and I needed to give something back.”
Finding new purpose wasn’t difficult for Mr. Chase, as he saw that exactly what he was seeking had already been done. Semitrucks could be wrapped in fully customizable artwork, and the designer he had his sights on, Justin Pasky, worked for a company in Minnesota.
They touched base, and Mr. Chase soon realized how difficult working with artists could be. After a few months of bugging Mr. Pasky, they finally came together to work on a wrap.
And so began an ongoing endeavor for the pair, who didn’t always see eye to eye, to bring Mr. Chase’s key concepts of military, emergency medical services, police, and firefighters together on a grand scheme to tell America’s story—from George Washington Crossing the Delaware to the war in Afghanistan—and have one whole side engulfed in flames, honoring firefighters. There would be freedom given to the artist. Mr. Chase only had three rules:
“First, we’re going to agree on a price; second, no skull and crossbones; and third, simple, I get the final say.”
Fortunately, getting to work on a wrap that had guns was a rarity for Mr. Pasky, who tackled it with relish. There was back and forth between the artist and driver for four months, as Mr. Chase sent pictures to him while on the road. While Mr. Pasky had a story to tell, so did Mr. Chase, though they both knew what he wanted. In the end, though, it all came together in the most glorious and harmonious way, as if they both somehow lost control of the project and a higher power took over.
“Finally, I stopped in at his place of business, we sat down, and we finally finalized it,” he said. “It was done and there was no more questions, both of us [were] satisfied with what it said.”
At that moment, he told Mr. Pasky, “Wow! It has everything, when did we lose control?”
“Looking back at it, it was like we’re being guided by another hand,“ Mr. Chase told The Epoch Times. ”I was just like, ‘I think God had a play in this.’”
For the past six years, Mr. Chase has continued long hauling loads across the country, but more and more he has been called to bring his truck—dubbed America’s Truck by some—to patriotic events. Wherever he goes, people see its grandeur, and it’s become a magnet for events organized by the likes of Blue Skies and the Red Knights.
So many people are moved by America’s 18-wheeler that it’s given Mr. Chase new purpose in life. He’s witnessed Vietnam vets stop by and fall to pieces. “They just break up, they just completely break down,” the driver said, noting that his new mission got him “out of bed.”
“The project gave me something to do, to look forward to,” he said.
He said he wants to help people suffering from PTSD, wounded warriors, and servicemen returning home with illness from their deployment.
Once hauling loads from ocean to ocean, Mr. Chase says he’s “slowing down a bit now.” Yet he continues to dream big about his next motorized artistic addition: a new state-of-the-art wrap for his semi with a reflective surface that makes it light up at night.
