This Week in USBP History, Vol. 35

May 1 - May 7

Welcome to another This Week in USBP History!
 
Have a great week!

Cliff
 
PS - 

• As an open and continuous invitation to current and former USBP employees, I am always accepting photos to post in the USBP Photo Galleries and in the Upholding Honor First pages.  I sure would appreciate you visiting those pages and sending me anything that you think I could post.
  
• As always, make sure to explore all of the hyperlinks to documents and pages.

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Esprit de Corps

​The workplace climate resulting from a combination of organizational pride and employee morale.

• Organizational pride is the positive feeling experienced by employees from being part of a meaningful team that is rich in history, tradition and culture.
• Employee morale is the feeling experienced by employee based in part on their perception of:
  • Being valued by the organization,
  • Fairly compensated, and
  • Performing meaningful work.

Esprit de corps is reinforced through the shared goals, mission and values of the organization and its employees.

The definition turns Esprit de Corps into a simple formula and defines parts that comprise organizational pride and employee morale.

Esprit de Corps = Organizational Pride + Employee Morale

Esprit de Corps is the key to a healthy organization and engaged employees.

Honor First is foundational to the Border Patrol's organizational pride and integral to its Esprit de Corps.

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Documents​/Events
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1926

• On May 1, 1926, Chief of the Border Patrol George Harris (1876-1941) wrote a memo concerning the importance of the "oral examination".  the most telling part of the memo is the following sentence:
  • The writer is sure the Bureau will thoroughly agree with him that the oral examination should be uniformly accorded to all patrol inspector candidates who have successfully passed the written test. In no other way is it possible so effectively to weed out obvious misfits and save the Service later trouble and expense.
• ​On May 3, 1926, a memo providing very general guidance for the position of Senior Patrol Inspector was issued by the Assistant Commissioner-General.  The position was newly created with the signing of General Order 61 on March 18, 1926.

​​1929

• On May 3, 1929, General Order 132 was enacted.  This General Order was anchored to a March 4, 1929, "Act Making it a felony with penalty for certain aliens to enter the United States of America under certain conditions in violation of law."  That Act would be superseded in 1952, becoming 8 U.S.C. 1326, Reentry of removed aliens.

1931

• On May 1, 1931, Assistant Commissioner-General George Harris wrote one of the earliest memos found concerning Border Patrol Inspectors participating in shooting competitions.
  • An interesting aspect about this memo is that Harris had been one of the Chiefs of the Border 1926-1927 before he had promoted out of the position.  He would return to the Border Patrol as Chief 1932-1933 coming the first and only person to have served as Chief of the Border Patrol in non-consecutive terms.  Finally, it should be noted that when he first became "Chief", the position was called "Supervisor, Border Patrol".  His second time as "Chief" the position was called "Director of Border Patrol".
• On May 2, 1931, this collection of documents describes a gunfight occurred between Border Patrol Inspectors and alcohol smugglers in which suspect, Guillermo Rodriguez was killed.  The documents include a diagram and photographs of the international boundary between Cordova Island and the United States.

1939

• On May 6, 1939, the Buffalo Sub-district responded to the Central Office's January 18, 1939, memo to the field to inventory all badges and cap insignia for all positions.  Most notable Buffalo's response is the name, "Paul L.D. Calloway​" (1901-1960) who was the first African American Border Patrol Inspector.
  • Research indicates that Paul L.D. Calloway became a Border Patrol Inspector in the summer of 1924.  He retired from the Border Patrol in 1955.  He worked his entire career in the area of Buffalo, NY. See this 1929 roster (pg. 5).  See these photographs from 1932 and 1942.  Also, see this page from the 1930 Census. 

1956

• On May 3, 1956, a multipage document was drafted to compare costs to build a border fence or to increase manpower (and associated costs) to address illegal entries. The proposed location for the fences were, Chula Vista, El Centro, Yuma, El Paso and Brownsville.  Spoil alert, it was project to be less expensive to build fences.

2003

• On May 1, 2003, Chief of the Border Patrol Gus De La Viña (1939-2009) signed a memo changing the criteria of the Newton-Azrak Award. This would be the award's second criteria.
  • In 2003, the INS was dissolved and the U.S. Border Patrol was transferred to the newly created U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The Newton-Azrak Award was carried over into CBP.  However, instead of providing the award criteria that had been in place since 1973 as implemented in the INS Administrative Manual the U.S. Border Patrol drafted a new criteria in the form of a memorandum from the Chief of the Border Patrol. Had the original INS criteria been implemented in CBP, all CBP law enforcement employees would have been eligible to receive the award.  However, with the change in criteria, only Border Patrol Agents could be recipients and only for acts of bravery or heroism.  Under the new criteria, CBP carried the Newton-Azrak Award as a Commissioner's award that could only be presented to Border Patrol Agents.

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​Newton-Azrak Award Action Anniversaries​
 
Follow this link to see examples of USBP employees Upholding Honor First.

• An organization’s values are codified in its awards system. Recognizing the achievements, service and heroism of employees is important.  It is critical for those in positions of leadership to value the workforce.  Awards are a fundamental manner for leaders to demonstrate appreciation to the workforce for upholding the organizational values. – U.S. Border Patrol Honorary Awards​

 
There are no Newton-Azrak Award anniversaries for the week.  However, there are several actions for which the date is unknown.  I will highlight some of those below.  In 1982, three of the 26 non-USBP Newton-Azrak Award recipients received their recognitions..
1982

Hipolito Acosta
Investigator
El Paso, Texas
Investigator Hipolito Acosta was recognized for his participation in several highly complex and dangerous undercover investigations resulting in the seizure of thousands of altered and counterfeit documents, and the arrest and convictions of the most notorious vendors of counterfeit documents ever encountered in the Chicago area.
 
Gary Renick
Investigator
San Antonio, Texas
Investigator Gary Renick was recognized for his efforts in gathering crucial evidence which aided the Drug Enforcement Administration in the seizure of five kilos of heroin, and which resulted in the arrest of a three-time convicted alien smuggler.  He was also credited with uncovering widespread corruption at the State of Illinois driver’s license facilities.
 
Richard Shuler
Investigator
Dallas, Texas
Investigator Richard Shuler was recognized for his courageous act in rescuing an individual from a burning building at risk to his own life.

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USBP Fallen​

As of December 8, 2021, the U.S. Border Patrol has suffered 151* fallen.
Titles:

• 3 Mounted Watchmen fell before 1924 and are carried as Border Patrol fallen
• 48 Border Patrol Inspectors fell between 1924 and 1970
• 99 Border Patrol Agents have fallen since 1970
• 1 Enforcement Analysis Specialist

The names that appear below hold a place of honor. They have made the ultimate sacrifice in an effort to fulfill the oath each officer took to protect and defend the United States of America.

The facts regarding each officer are presented without major editing of the "language of the day" found in the reports detailing the circumstances of each event. This is done to provide the reader an association with historical timeframes.
Employees who died in the line of duty due to being exposed to deadly illnesses will not have the cause of death listed.

*With the exception of two of the fallen immediately below, all names are listed (or in the process of being included) on the official Honor Roll of U.S. Border Patrol Fallen and inscribed on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial.  The U.S. Border Patrol should fix these discrepancies. HonorFirst.com honors both of the fallen.

• Joe R. White - He is recognized as officially fallen by the U.S. Border Patrol but his name is not inscribed on the National Law Enforcement Officer Memorial.
• John Charles Gigax - His name is inscribed on the National Law Enforcement Officer Memorial (see link) but he is not recognized as officially fallen by the U.S. Border Patrol.  His EOW was November 7, 1999.

2002
Roberto J. Duran
Date of Birth:                March 29, 1968
Entered on Duty:          January 4, 1998
Title:                              Border Patrol Agent
End of Watch:               May 6, 2002
 
Details:
Border Patrol Agent Roberto Javier Duran was on detail from the Chula Vista Station to the Casa Grande Station when he was ejected from his vehicle in a vehicle rollover accident on Monday, May 6, 2002. He had worked the midnight shift and was returning to the station. Agents from the Casa Grande Station rendered emergency medical assistance and provided comfort to Agent Duran, but he died at the scene.
 
Agent Duran was born in Anthony, New Mexico. He served in the United States Navy from 1986 to 1997. He was a graduate of the 361st session of the U.S. Border Patrol Academy in Charleston, South Carolina.


2009
Nathaniel A. Afolayan
Date of Birth:                 March 26, 1980
Entered on Duty:           February 16, 2009
Title:                              Border Patrol Agent (Trainee)
End of Watch:               May 1, 2009
 
Details:
On April 30, 2009, newly hired Agent Nathaniel A. Afolayan collapsed during a physical training exam. Agent Afolayan had just completed the 1.5-mile run portion of his physical techniques final exam. After his collapse, he was transported via ambulance to Artesia General Hospital. Later that day, his condition worsened and he was taken via life-flight to Covenant Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas. Agent Afolayan died May 1, 2009. An autopsy concluded his death was accidental due to heat illness.
 
Agent Afolayan was a native of Nigeria. He was a member of the 856th Session of the Border Patrol Academy and was to be assigned to the Newton-Azrak Station in the San Diego Sector.