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How the US Border Patrol Store got started
I spent 24 years protecting America’s borders while serving in the U.S. Border Patrol. Prior to my retirement my wife spent months trying to find border patrol retirement gifts or memorabilia to no avail. There just isn’t much out there. Though I did receive some awesome gifts, I knew she was right when she said that the border patrol is the least known and most under represented law enforcement agency out there. With that in mind my wife and I came up with creating challenge coins and lapel pins to recognize the patrol and the different aspects of it. We started late in 2005 and have had overwhelming results.
As for who I am; I retired from the Patrol in August 2004. I entered on duty with the Border Patrol at El Centro Sector on August 18, 1980. At that time I was assigned to the Calexico, California station. I graduated from the 138th session of the Border Patrol Academy at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, GA on Dec. 17, 1980.
While in Calexico, I was selected to attend and completed the Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC ) basic training class #1. I was also temporarily detailed (TDY) to Glynco as a firearms instructor from May – December 1985. In September 1986 I transferred to Stockton, California as a Border Patrol Agent (BPA).
While in Stockton I was again TDY to Glynco from January – June 1987 as a Physical Training instructor. In May 1988 I was promoted to Supervisory BPA in Yuma, Arizona.
During my time in Yuma I had many TDY’s, mostly due to my involvement with BORTAC. In 1989 I spent 3 months in Bolivia working with DEA on “Operation Snowcap”. During the Gulf War in 1991 I was assigned to Los Angeles International airport as part of a team providing counter-terrorism security and was again sent to LA to assist LAPD during the Rodney King riots. In 1993 I went back to Bolivia for another 3 month “Snowcap” tour.
In 1995 I was promoted to Patrol Agent in Charge (PAIC) of the Oroville, Washington station, but spent only 20 months there before transferring to Carrizo Springs, Texas in1997 as PAIC. I spent the next 7 seven years there until my retirement in August 2004.
My retirement came early as I was only 52 yrs old. When I met and married my wife she was a US Customs Canine Enforcement Supervisor in San Luis, AZ. Prior to getting married we agreed that she would follow my career, transferring into whatever position she could get up until I turned 50 yrs old. She is 12 years younger than I am and has several years until retirement. We figured I could promote up in my career until I turned 50 and after that she would still have 16 years in which she could pursue her career advancement.
My wife was a trooper over the last 11 years of my career. She went from being a Canine Supervisor, to a journeymen canine officer and eventually became an inspector just to follow my career. In 2003 she accepted a position as an inspector at the Montreal Preclearance Station in Montreal, Canada. I attempted to get a transfer to the Swanton, VT sector to no avail, so I retired in August 2004.
Retirement has been very good to me. I keep busy with house-husband duties and keeping up with this website. My wife has since been promoted to a Course Developer/Instructor at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia. It’s like going home after being gone for years. Although the sounds of grunts and groans, lots and lots of push-ups and trainees trying to make it over the wall of the obstacle course isn’t heard around here anymore, our memory lives on. If you listen real close, when you least expect it, you can still hear the running feet and cadence of the trainees striving to become one of the elite….a United States Border Patrol Agent.
“Honor First”
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USBPLapelPins.com 
