Border Patrol Stories
An Unexpected Career
This actually happened several times, but I knew this guy from another class: There was a BP trainee who had been a police officer for many years, but always had the dream of being a federal agent. In the Academy his PT scores and law grades were excellent, but he just couldn't do well in Spanish, no matter how hard he tried. He went to all the study groups, got help from instructors and native speaker classmates who all tried to help him, but he was just one of those guys who couldn't hack Spanish and everything else that was going on at the same time. Then came the Spanish test that determined whether or not it was statistically possible for him to pass Spanish, and he failed. He went to De La Vina's office to turn in his BP stuff. The guy was crushed. Not only did he give up a well established police career, but he had a wife and 2 children at home, and all of his relatives and police buddies knew he was supposed to become a fed - and now he had to return home in a failure. Chief De La Vina personally saw him off, and told him sometimes bad things come with a silver lining. The guy thought that was a strange thing for The Chief to say, but they shook hands and The Chief graciously walked him to the door.
The guy walked about 50 feet when he was met by 2 supervisors from the Customs Patrol. They said that they understood that the guy was maybe looking for a job? If so, follow them, to do a little paperwork. There was a class starting in 2 weeks, but that they would keep him on at FLETC doing odd jobs until then, and if anybody asked at home he could honestly say that he was offered a job by another agency.
That guy ended up as a Supervisory Special Agent and retired after a long distinguished career.
The guy walked about 50 feet when he was met by 2 supervisors from the Customs Patrol. They said that they understood that the guy was maybe looking for a job? If so, follow them, to do a little paperwork. There was a class starting in 2 weeks, but that they would keep him on at FLETC doing odd jobs until then, and if anybody asked at home he could honestly say that he was offered a job by another agency.
That guy ended up as a Supervisory Special Agent and retired after a long distinguished career.
An Unexpected Career
DISCLAIMER: The views and experiences shared in this story are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of HonorFirst.com, the U.S. Border Patrol, or any government agency. These stories are presented for historical and cultural insight and have been submitted by current or former Border Patrol employees with minimal editing for clarity.
