Patriotic gesture keeps morale high at Hammett Gravel

Mississippi-based Hammett Gravel Co. fastened American flags to its fleet of mobile equipment, including this Cat 966M wheel loader. Photo: Hammett Gravel

Turn the news on these days, and the media coverage is bound to get you down.

Tripp Hammett figured that much out early into the coronavirus pandemic, so he turned off a number of push notifications providing negative coronavirus updates through his smartphone.

With the potential for fear and uncertainty to consume his employees at Hammett Gravel Co., Hammett sought an outlet to lift their spirits. That’s when he made a beeline for the local Walmart, purchasing a collection of American flags to fasten to his mobile equipment fleet.

The patriotic sight is one to behold, Hammett says, boosting morale during one of the more challenging times in recent history.

“It looks really neat within the operations with American flags flying all over the equipment,” says Hammett, whose family-owned business is based in Lexington, Mississippi. “That was just a small, inspirational-type of idea.”

With the coronavirus impacting so many American businesses, Hammett feels fortunate his customers remain active to provide his company opportunities to sell construction materials. Many of his employees are thankful to have jobs, as well, considering people everywhere are struggling.

“My employees are thankful to have a job,” Hammett says. “One of the benefits of all this is people are coming to work. It is such surreal times. I know that’s a word that’s going around, but when all of this is over, there is going to be so much money pumped into the economy. It will be interesting to see how it expands.”

Through all of this, Hammett keeps returning to the concept of gratitude.

“Every producer should be grateful they can function and keep their people going,” he says. “So many people don’t have a job, and so many may not recover frankly.”

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