Daily Slideshow: This Super Duty Salutes the Marines
This modified F-250 serves a higher calling than just being an awesome truck to pilot about daily. Read more about how this Ford is working to save our troops.
Still standing strong
U.S. Marine Corps veteran Dorian Reyna knows a thing or two about adversity. He's seen a lot serving his country and then faced the brutality of nature earlier this year along with his fellow Texans with the flooding in the Houston area. However, Dorian still stands and so does his 2012 F-250 that is his shop's truck. You see, the truck is more than a speeding diesel that shows off what his shop, Power Stroke Enginuities, is capable of. It's a message of defiance and respect.
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Approaching the issue
“As a veteran and diesel enthusiast, I really wanted to do a truck that would connect with people,” Dorian says. “The re-creation of the shark-faced nose art that identifies the planes flown in WWII by the ‘Flying Tigers,’ the first U.S. volunteer air group, attracts so many people because it is different and historic. The look breaks the ice and gets people to check the truck out, but the message is what really has an impact—especially with fellow veterans.”
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Saving those who fought for us
That big 22 you see on doors of the truck is a sobering reminder that we need to take better care of our troops that return home psychologically scarred from the things they've endured. Studies have shown that an average of 22 veterans take their own lives each day to escape PTSD. Dorian wants to decrease that number. “Every veteran out there has lost a buddy in this way,” he explains. “Post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide are huge issues for us, and this truck has connected me with so many people who have had amazing conversations about their service and their lives. People open up when they see it, and that’s the biggest reward I’ve received from building it.” Dorian says that some of the most moving conversations he's ever had have been because of the truck and the manner that it affects fellow veterans and their families.
>>Join the conversation about this Veteran Themed Super Duty F-250 right here in Ford-trucks.com.
Rebuilding with the help of others
When the flood hit Houston back in August of 2017 his shop, unfortunately, was not spared and as Dorian says it got pretty ugly in there. “We had like five feet of water in the building, and the night before it got really bad, looters stole a couple of trucks from our yard. After the storm, the support to help us get back on our feet was amazing. A lot of people in the diesel industry and members of the hobby’s huge community came and helped us clean up. Some guys donated computers, gear, parts, tools, and even money to help get our shop back up and running. They didn’t want publicity from it. They just wanted to help from the heart. If you do it for publicity, I think that’s the wrong reason.”
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And so it began
After getting things back together at the shop along with his guy at PSE Dorian went searching for a truck online. After finding a one that he thought would fit the bill nicely, he just had to run it by his boss. “I found this regular-cab, long bed truck and told my wife I needed to buy it,” he says with a laugh. “She told me to sell one of my other trucks and get it, so I did.”
>>Join the conversation about this Veteran Themed Super Duty F-250 right here in Ford-trucks.com.
It's a fighter jet on the road
Since that purchase, the truck has gone from mild to wild with 1,180 horsepower turbo 6.7-Power Stroke under the hood. “It started out as a good parts runner and shop truck. We decided to tune it and add the turbocharger kit, and all of a sudden it’s a 1,180hp beast!” Dorian was quick to tell us the fighter plane–themed wrap is his favorite element of the build. “I love the truck’s performance,” he says. “When it comes off the starting line at the dragstrip with the four tires hooked up, you know you are on a great run. But for me, the coolest thing is the wrap. It’s just so different and attracts so much attention to the truck that I can’t help calling it my favorite part.”
>>Join the conversation about this Veteran Themed Super Duty F-250 right here in Ford-trucks.com.
Always faithful
With the way that the truck looks one would assume that there are aftermarket parts aplenty on the vehicle, but that would be wrong. There's a stock transfer case, driveshafts, and axles holding the Super Duty together. The first of the stock parts on the truck to go the way of the dodo had to be the transmission. The good folks over at Midwest Competition Diesel built a 6R140 TorqShift six-speed automatic to handle all the power that the F-250 was now putting down. This truck is stronger together than the sum of the parts separately. Just like the men and women that proudly serve our great country every day.
Semper Fi!
Suicide rates spike over the holidays. If you know a veteran who is suffering from depression or having suicidal thoughts or just feeling the effects of PTSD please click here.
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