One in a series honoring the Exchange’s 128 years of family serving family.
Who he is: Scott Munley, Motor Vehicle Operator (MVO) Foreman, Dan Daniel Distribution Center
Years with the Exchange: 31—and 1.7 million miles driven. Munley is nearing the end of his Exchange road: He will retire in August.
What made him decide to become a truck driver: “When I was 16 years old, a friend of mine worked at a gas station in New Jersey, where I’m originally from,” says Munley, who began his driving career nearly a decade before he joined the Exchange. “In Jersey, you’re not allowed to pump your own fuel, so I was a gas jockey. There was a guy who would deliver fuel, and his name was Richie. Richie was a truck owner-operator. I ended up making friends with him, and I got a ride in a truck. I was hooked.
“I’ve always loved to drive. To this day, if my wife and I are doing a two-day trip, I’m driving. I just want to be behind the wheel. It was just a fit. It’s really nice when you’re coming through the mountains and you see the sun breaking on the top of the mountain and lighting up the tops of trees. Or if you’re out in a small town in Ohio and you go past the Rexall Drugs and the Tastee-Freez. It’s America.”
What brought him to the Exchange: “My ex-wife worked in a realty office, and a gentleman who came in there paid for his mother-in-law’s apartment. He was a driver for the Exchange. So they started talking, and he said I should apply to the Exchange. I did—and I really like the people here. The people you deliver to are just decent people. When you’re in the civilian world and you go to a food service warehouse or something like that, they can treat you like you’re dirt and they’ll have you there for hours. The Exchange has set rules that we have to abide by, and that’s why I’ve stayed so long.”
What he did at first: Motor vehicle operator—Munley has been based at Dan Daniel for his entire Exchange career but has driven in much of the Eastern United States.
“I’ve driven through every blizzard on the East Coast between 1983 and 2016. For the Exchange, I’ve volunteered to drive into three hurricanes. During 9/11, I didn’t go into New York, but I was on the volunteer list to bring supplies up to Fort Dix on the spur of the moment.”
What he does now: Along with being the MVO foreman for Dan Daniel, he supervises drivers at Forts Stewart, Moore and Drum. “I’m also the liaison to the other three foremen up and down the East Coast and the liaison to the Dayton Consolidation Center. I also do the scheduling for the East Coast. For the past six years, the holiday loads, any of the water loads, any of the emergency relief runs has either been me doing them, or I taught the driver how to do them.”
The secret to being a good driver: “You just have to pay attention. If somebody driving a car goes down a highway, they have a habit of reading only the signs that pertain to them, and they don’t look in their mirrors. You have to actually care about who’s around you and what they’re doing. You have to keep an extremely open mind because you never know what will happen. You just have to stay aware.”
Favorite run: “I loved going up to Bangor, Maine. We don’t deliver there anymore, but it’s just gorgeous. U.S. Route 1 up through Maine is just beautiful.”
Military connections: Munley’s son, Nathaniel Scott Munley, recently graduated from Advanced Individual Training at Fort Moore. “He’s in the Virginia Army National Guard, and he’s stationed in Charlottesville with the 116th Infantry. It’s about a three-hour drive home for him.
“He just did two weeks at Fort Pickett [now Fort Barfoot] and I was able to contact the store manager after he left. I used to love going there because the store itself is from World War II and I like old buildings. He said he really liked the store. For him to say, ‘I really like the store’ is a lot. So I contacted the manager there to let her know she was doing good.”
Retirement plans: “We have a small farm. We call it a mini-farm. It’s 3.5 acres, and we’re raising chickens. That’s going to take up a lot of my time. I will probably do some type of driving, but instead of being in charge of 33 guys, I just want to be in charge of me.”
What Family Serving Family means to him: “I have a T-shirt that says ‘I was there for him when he was younger, and now he’s there for us when he’s older.’ They’re serving our country, so we have to do whatever we can to support them.”
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