128 Years of Family Serving Family: Eddie Hill, Motor Vehicle Operator, Fort Dix Relay

One in a series honoring the Exchange’s 128 years of family serving family.

Who he is: Eddie Hill, Motor Vehicle Operator, Fort Dix Relay

Years with the Exchange: 17

What made him decide to become a truck driver: “I’ve always loved driving. I used to drive years ago for Roadway Packaging, which was similar to UPS. I enjoyed doing that and then I got out of it and went into retail for about 10 years. But I wanted to get back out on the road again. I wanted to get out and enjoy the weather, the scenery, meeting different people. That’s what made me get back into driving. I can’t do an office job because I just love being outdoors.”

What brought him to the Exchange: “I was working for IKEA in South Jersey, probably about 20 minutes from Fort Dix. I left there and decided to get my commercial driver’s license and started driving again. A friend of mine introduced me to the Exchange. I said, ‘Isn’t that just for military people only?’ I didn’t realize that civilians could work on post. My friend introduced me to a lady who was in the Air Force, and she brought me to the Exchange. I asked how I could apply for a job and she said, ‘Just go online and apply.’ They had an opening at the Fort Dix main store at the time. I applied for the main store and got a receiving job there.”

What he did at first: “I worked in receiving for at least a year or a year and a half before I switched over to driving for the Exchange. There were a lot of good people there. One lady trained me how to do the receiving of boxes coming in from FedEx and UPS, from soda vendors and more. It was fun. I really enjoyed it.”

What he does now: Hill makes deliveries to Exchange facilities in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts, at installations ranging from West Point to small installations such as Tobyhanna Army Depot in Pennsylvania and Picatinny Arsenal, a small base in New Jersey. “I love what I do now,” he says. “The people that I’ve met through the years have been very friendly, very helpful. I have nothing bad to say about any of them. It’s really an amazing job.”

He adds: “One thing that made me love this job even more is I was in the food court getting lunch, and I looked around and I saw all the Soldiers eating. I said to myself, ‘This is amazing. I’m actually on a military base, working and serving these people who are protecting us. That really touched me.”

Memorable moments: In April 2020, Hill delivered a mobile field Exchange to the Army’s field hospital at the Javits Center in New York City to support service members and medical personnel on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, he told the Exchange Post that people were clapping and waving as his truck rolled into the city.

“That was a big thing,” he says. “This company is willing to go out and help strangers in a situation that wasn’t in their control. Being asked to do something to help others touched my heart. I would never in my wildest dreams thought that I would be doing something in a situation like that.”

Since 2018, Hill has also regularly helped the Corporate Communication team share the Exchange relevancy and mission during the Army-Navy Game. “It’s really awesome working with them,” he says. “It’s such a nice group of people. One of these days I’ll have to go to headquarters and see what you guys do behind the scenes.”

Favorite run: “Right now, it’s the Massachusetts run,” Hill said. (When this interview took place, he happened to be in Massachusetts, where he makes deliveries to Hanscom and Westover Air Force Bases and Devens Reserve Forces Training Area.) “I love coming up here. It’s nice, it’s quiet. I don’t have to worry about rushing back to the Relay at Fort Dix. I know that I can make my deliveries and take my time as long as I get to the bases on time. I don’t have to rush to get back on the road right away.”

Toughest drive: “One year, I went to Fort Drum on New Year’s Eve.” (Fort Drum is in Upstate New York, near the Canadian border.) “It wasn’t snowing when I got there. I made the delivery and I wanted to rest a little bit. So I rested for maybe an hour. When I got up, it started snowing. So I thought, ‘Let me make my way out of here.’ Because I know Fort Drum gets a lot of snow in the winter. After I left, I hit at least 10 miles that were in a blizzard. I kept stopping and cleaning my windows, cleaning the wipers off because they were frozen. That was the worst storm I’ve ever been in since I’ve been driving.”

Military connections: Hill has an uncle and a cousin who are retired from the Army. “Their experiences in the service were really good for them,” he says. “They really enjoyed doing what they were doing. My uncle served in the Vietnam War and he’s still here today.”

What family serving family means to him: “It’s like a close-knit community. Everybody is there for you, everybody is willing to help you. There’s no anger toward anyone. Everyone is always friendly. The Javits Center run showed me how much this company cares for other people and how it’s willing to go above and beyond to help. That’s what family is, and the Exchange is a big family that’s willing to go out and help.”