Wreaths Across America and Walmart partner to deliver one very special honor.
Before becoming a Walmart driver, John Levine served in the Army. He did two tours in Iraq on active duty from 2001 to 2005 and later served in the National Guard.
In November 2004, John was driving in a convoy in Fallujah, when his truck was struck by an explosive. John was wounded, knocked unconscious and — doctors later informed him — likely suffered a heart attack from the force of the blast.
For his bravery, John was awarded the Purple Heart. But the medal was lost in a house fire a few years later. Little did he know then, a replacement would be coming his way in December 2024 — all thanks to his commitment to honoring others.
At the annual Wreaths Across America Appreciation Dinner in Arlington, Virginia, Walmart and Wreaths Across America organized a surprise for John: General Daniel Allyn, 35th Vice Chief of Staff to the Army (retired) presented him with a replacement Purple Heart, marking 20 years since he first received the honor.
From Army driver to Walmart driver
It was 2021 when John took the wheel for Walmart. When did he know that he’d made the right choice? Day two of onboarding. John looked up and saw Walmart’s certified driver trainers (CDTs) in attendance.
“The uniforms were pressed, they were clean, they were sharp-looking, they were fitted. All the CDTs were in the nice white, professional Walmart driver shirts,” John recalls. “I saw them up there as a single unit, one team. And it was the first time I felt anything that remotely resembled being in the military. And I knew, at that moment, this was a place that I was going to fit in well.”
Within about a year of joining Walmart as a driver, John became a CDT, sharing his years of experience with up-and-coming drivers. Today, he’s a facilitator in Fleet Development out of Dover, Delaware, and trains new hire drivers and associate-to-driver students.
“It gives me tremendous pride in training, seeing future drivers of this country and of this company going out there and putting down safe miles,” he says.
Remembering, honoring, teaching
John learned about Wreaths Across America after starting with Walmart and was immediately taken with the effort. The next year, he participated in Wreaths Across America for the first time. Based in Transportation Office 6838 in Marcy, New York, John did the leg to Woodland, Pennsylvania.
“That just ignited a fire in me to get involved more,” he shares, “to keep the memory and legacies of the fallen soldiers, fallen service members alive.”
One memory he is sure to keep alive is that of his squad leader, who was killed in Fallujah. Each year, John sponsors a wreath at his grave in Puerto Rico. Next year, he hopes to travel to Puerto Rico to lay the wreath himself.
Twenty years after earning his Purple Heart, John was honored with a replacement among his fellow Walmart drivers. He says it was a humbling experience — especially as part of Wreaths Across America. “I feel like I accepted this replacement, not on my behalf, but on the behalf of all the fallen soldiers who received it posthumously, the ones who will never be able to feel what it feels like against their chest, the ones who were sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, children,” he shares.
“To do it at Wreaths Across America in front of that audience, in front of Gold Star families, I feel like that's who I was accepting it for. That's what it felt like to me. It makes it even more significant than my original.”
