It’s not the norm for any diesel repair shop these days, but Premier Truck Group (PTG) of Springfield, a mammoth 53-bay facility in Missouri, currently boasts a strong technician staffing level and has “also been fortunate to maintain a very good retention rate,” reported Nate Sonnentag, the shop’s longtime service manager.

One reason is that PTG, a subsidiary of Penske Automotive Group, established a technician hiring program in 2021 with Fort Bliss. Universal Technical Institute instructors train troops heading back to civilian life for up to 12 weeks in the diesel arts. Veterans who complete the hands-on training and coursework are then eligible for service technician roles at PTG.

The El Paso base is one of the largest U.S. Army installations in the country, so there are plenty of potential recruits. As of last year, 160 veterans had been hired by PTG through the program. Five work at the Springfield location, which also operates as a SelecTrucks dealership. The technicians underwent six to eight weeks of Freightliner-specific training, according to the shop.

PTG Springfield employs 16 veterans in total, 13 of whom work in the service department. Eleven are technicians, including the Fort Bliss hires.

Assistant service manager Scott Whitehill also served in the Army as a medic from 1983 to 1986, where he learned a very different kind of triage. Even practice exercises could end in casualties, and Whitehill would have to jump in and field-dress broken bones and wounds.

He served at Fort Lewis, Washington, in the Ninth Infantry Division—the same as Forrest Gump, Whitehill noted proudly. And like the eccentric Gump, Whitehill had a variety of jobs after his discharge. He provided physical therapy for the recently paralyzed, worked for 17 years in the pool and spa industry, and rebuilt and resold wrecked motorcycles.

Since 2011, he has worked for PTG, starting as a service advisor for Joplin Freightliner. His military training has served him well in ensuring customer uptime.

“Like a medic, there's urgency based on what the fleet needs and what we can provide,” he said, explaining that the work involves identifying which trucks to fix first and what parts, tools, and technicians are needed for the job. “Definitely, that triage mindset is forefront here in what we do.”

Those skills have been put to maximum use lately, with PTG opening its new facility in August, combining the volume of four facilities under one roof. Several things have changed since the move, and Whitehill has created meticulous checklists to ensure things run smoothly.

“Scott does a great job of staying calm, focused, and collected in high-pressure situations, and I believe his military experience has contributed to that,” Sonnentag said. “While working on trucks is obviously very different from his previous experience, the ability to remain composed, assess a situation, and work effectively under pressure translates extremely well to our industry.”

Fortunately, Whitehill may have packed away his uniform but never dropped his Army-instilled mindset of focusing on the “most efficient, quickest way to do a job that gets the best results,” he said.

“Achieve and move on—I learned that in the service, and it's been with me ever since,” he concluded.