The first shipments of COVID-19 vaccine left on trucks and planes early on Sunday, kicking off a historic effort to stop a surging pandemic that is claiming more than 2,400 lives a day in the United States, and delivering what one UPS pilot Captain Houston Mills calls "hope."

Mills, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps and flew F-18 jets, says the experience of serving in delivering the vaccines is "just very humbling."

“The gravity of what this vaccine will mean to so many people, I think, is what makes it so powerful."

He said he welcomed the opportunity to help deliver hope and a change.

"And I know I'm like anyone else out there, we got COVID fatigue," he added.

The long-awaited moment comes as the U.S. death toll was approaching 300,000 and infections and hospitalizations set daily records. Some models project that deaths could reach 500,000 before vaccines become widely available in the spring and summer.

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