A few months prior to learning he had been chosen to be a part of the Elite 11 within Transition Trucking’s 2026 Driving For Excellence Award, Mohammad “Mo” Arzola had already experienced a warm embrace from an industry that delivered a sense of peace to his world.
“Trucking saved my life,” declared Arzola without hesitation. “When I started truck driving, I started looking at life from a positive perspective again. My avenue of life had changed. Just like a lot of veterans who go out and ride motorcycles as a form of therapy, driving a truck helped me heal with all the traumas and stuff that I went through.
“Driving a truck was especially helpful with all the stressors that happened as I ended my time in the service and I restarted my life at home,” he added. “I found that I love being on that open road.”
Experiencing huge life changes after years of service
Arzola re-entered civilian life following 27 years of service in the Marine Corps that saw him answer calls to duty in a variety of roles during a military career — including deployments to some of the world’s most intense conflicts over the past quarter century.
A purple heart recipient because of injuries sustained following an IED attack in Iraq, Arzola worked through the impacts that both traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress had on his life — even as he rose to the rank of Sergeant Major.
As he began to look to the future following what would be his last deployment, Arzola held a strong desire to give back to his family, who had been highly supportive of his service through multiple overseas deployments and other assignments that had kept him away from home.
Arzola connected with Hiring Our Heroes and began to work with the organization on job placement options. He was initially aligned with an opportunity that would move him from California to back to the San Antonio area where he had grown up.
Not long after buying a house in his hometown and preparing to start his new job in an office setting, Arzola’s wife shattered his new world by telling him she wanted a divorce.
“It was a real bomb, and it obviously crushed me. She had stood by me through all my deployments,” expressed Arzola. “I had a couple of buddies of mine go through something similar. She’s a good woman. It’s just, with me being gone so much, it took a toll on our marriage.”
The stress at home with the move, a pending divorce and being a father to his two sons did not help Arzola as he worked to get settled in his initial post-military job. Being in an office setting did not suit what Arzola needed at a time when his world seemed to be spinning out.
“That job wasn’t a good fit for me, and I didn’t like it,” explained Arzola. “I already felt like everything in my life was just crashing down, and it was horrible. I was crushed.
“How did I go from the world of being a top-tier performer to this? I’d lost everything. I didn’t even have a career,” he continued. “I was also scared because the Marine Corps had been my life for 27 years, and I was at the top of the game being a Sergeant Major.”
The call that opened the door to trucking
Having readily worked with mental health support resources provided by the Marines following his battlefield injuries and the stress from his deployments, Arzola understood the value and importance of reaching out for help and perspective, especially during times of crisis.
As the office job continued to turn in the wrong direction, Arzola found himself on the phone with his brother, Mac, who had established a solid career as a professional driver for HEB Grocery over the past few years.
“I was telling my brother about my job and he said, ‘You what, dude? I think I can get you into HEB,’” recalled Arzola. “My brother sent me the link to apply and, within 10 minutes after I hit ‘submit’ on my application, I got a call from my brother’s boss. He wanted to know if I could come in for an interview.”
The interview at HEB went quite well, and Arzola entered a program that helped him secure his CDL and prepared him for life as a professional driver with HEB.
Mo Arzola’s interview video appears below. Readers may also click here to view the video on YouTube or click here to hear an audio-only version.
Though he was still struggling with adjusting to civilian life and working through a divorce, Arzola could feel a rebound starting take place as he took advantage of counseling resources and started reading the book “Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road” by Neil Peart, who rose to fame in 1970s and ’80s as the drummer for the Canadian power rock trio Rush.
Over a 10-month period in the late 1990s, Peart suffered devastating losses when his 19-year-old daughter was killed in an automobile accident; then his wife of 23 years died of cancer. Isolated from the world while living in his lake house in Canada, Peart ventured out on a motorcycle ride that would span more than 55,000 miles across Norh America.
As Arzola notes, the journey Peart shares through his book offered the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame member a chance to reflect and heal.
“When I first went to HEB, I could see what the book was talking about,” said Arzola. “I started looking at driving as a form of therapy, and it helped clear my mind. To me, there’s nothing better than when you accelerate and you hear that turbo whistle kick in.
“I love driving on the open road, going down the highway,” he added. “I would stop at rest areas and I would look at nature. I would also take some time to pray and meditate.”
A childhood memory that now fuels a trucking dream
Arzola’s enlistment in the Marines at age18 years followed a family tradition of military service that dates back to his grandfather’s time in the Army during the Korean War, Arzola also found a bit of inspiration for his future in trucking when recalling a memory from his childhood.
“My Aunt Jo had a small truck stop in Ada, Oklahoma, and I was staying with her one summer when I was a kid,” remembered Arzola. “I was always intrigued by trucking and the big machinery.
“Well, one day this big truck that’s all chromed out comes rolling in, and all you can hear is that big turbo whistle,” he added. “The driver, who’s wearing a big cowboy hat, comes right over to me. He gives me five bucks and he says, ‘Hey buddy, can you get me a soda?’”
With an immediate impression already made, the young Arzola ran into the store and completed the errand in what actually became his first “delivery” in the trucking industry.
“I handed him his soda before he got back in his truck,” Arzola recalled. “He told me, ‘Keep the change.’ Man, that guy was so cool. I thought to myself, ‘One day I’m going to own a trucking company.’”
Though it’s tempting to spend hours pondering the possibilities of rapidly becoming an owner-operator by holding the keys that will be presented to the Kenworth T680 as the Driving For Excellence Award winner, Arzola chooses to focus more on what it means to have risen from the seemingly endless depths that he experienced while returning to civilian to life and rebounding in a way that made him part of the Elite 11.
“I’m very humbled and honored to be part of this group,” said Arzola of the Elite 11, a group that will be gathering in Columbus, Ohio, at the National Veterans Memorial and Museum on Sept. 22. “When you’re a veteran, you’re in a special class, and I feel like we are definitely an elite group of truck drivers. It’s going to be truly surreal to be able to connect with them and hear their stories.”
Greg Thompson is an award-winning writer and producer who has worked in the trucking industry in a variety of roles since 1998. With more than a decade’s worth of experience as a journalist prior entering trucking, Greg is the founder and executive producer of PodWheels.com, a podcast network dedicated to spotlighting the trucking industry.
Since 2019, PodWheels has provided specialized coverage of the National Truck Driving and National Step Van Driving Championships. Over its history, the NTDC Podcast Series has provided more than 150 hours of podcast content highlighting the competitors, organizers and volunteers involved with the Truck Driving Championships at both the state and national levels. The NTDC program, which is hosted annually by the American Trucking Associations, has a history that dates back to 1937.
Beginning in 2025, PodWheels was chosen by the ATA to serve as the Official Podcaster for the NTDC. PodWheels’ coverage of the NTDC, including state competitions and other features, is available through RoadToNTDC.com.
