USBP Campo & Me

Copyright © 2024 by Joe M. Aguilar. 862394

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Xlibris

www.Xlibris.com

Library of Congress Control Number: 2024918463

Rev. date: 09/10/2024

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

HOW IT ALL STARTED

PURPLE THING

JUST IN TIME

CRAWLING TO SAFETY

TALKING TOO MUCH

FOGG SUCKS

HITCH HIKER

THE BIG BUSH

ONE EYED GUIDE

SMALL BRUSH OUT

CLEANING LADY

DRUNK GUIDE ON TRACKS

HORIZON VIEW LESSON LEARNED

SOMETHING NOT RIGHT

GOOD MORING SENIOR

BROKEN FLASHLIGHT

SCOPE AT ZELLNER’S

GROUP IN TREE JEWELL VALLEY

EASY PICKINGS CONNECTOR RD

59 IN A HOUSE

GROUP IN GREENHEAD

CHE CHE GROUP IN CEDILLO

GROUP IN MT LAGUNA

RESCUE ON MT LAGUNA

WHERE DID THEY GO?

DAMN ITS COLD!

LIGHT ON THE TRAIL

WHO’S TO GUIDE

52 ON THE TRACKS

LEAVING MY POST

NORTH AND SOUTH

Introduction

I was born in Tijuana Baja California Mexico in 1959. All my family is from a small Ranch in the state of Michoacán named San Jose de Gracia. As a child, I lived in Mexico for three years and was immigrated to the United States by my mother. Growing up I spent all my summer vacations in Mexico in that small farm town in Michoacán were all my family lives. Fortunately spending time in Mexico gave me an opportunity to speak Spanish like the natives, which was useful in my job as a border patrol agent. I attended school throughout San Diego County neighborhoods and lived-in different parts of the city. I lived for a while in the East County where I became very familiar and comfortable with the rural life. I went to college in San Diego for a while but discovered that I enjoyed working for a living better. My college education granted me the opportunity to become a United States citizen and to eventually be employed by the United States Border Patrol at the age of thirty-six. I was assigned to the Campo Border Patrol station in the east county of San Diego. I spent my entire career, all 22 years at the Campo Station. The Campo Station which is located fifty miles east of the city of San Diego in a very rural and unincorporated area. These are some of the true accounts that happened while protecting our nation’s borders. Names have been changed to protect the identity of fellow border agents.

Acknowledgements

I thank all my partners in the border patrol that always had my back and helped me become one of the best agents in San Diego sector. I would also like to mention and give tribute to all the fallen agents that have given and will give their lives to protect our nation’s borders. Only you that have been tasked with this can understand the true nature of the job. To all of you that know this and protect our country and Borders I dedicate this memoir. I would like to thank my family who supported me throughout my career. My wife who gave me support, motivation and unconditional love. My daughters who supported me and continue to make me proud.

HOW IT ALL STARTED

Before I was hired by the U.S. Border Patrol I was working at Home Depot. The store was a mile from my home and I had a really good shift. It began at 5:00AM and finished at 2:00PM. Monday through Friday. I was in charge of unloading big rigs with a forklift of all materials that were on a flatbed trailer. Because I spent most of the day on the forklift and was training as a power lifter in my spare time, I was at a healthy weight of 248LBS. Routinely drivers that arrived early would ask me to unload their trucks before their scheduled time. All deliveries were scheduled so I could unload the trucks in an organized manner. This meant that if I unloaded a truck before there scheduled time, I was doing the driver a favor. The drivers would win me over by buying breakfast for me.

So, as you can imagine I became very out of shape. It had been two years since I applied for a position as a Border Patrol agent but I was very comfortable with what I was doing working at Home Depot. One day I was talking to my wife and I mentioned to her that I had not heard from the hiring board about my application. My wife suggested that I call them and find out my status. I called Washington DC and spoke with a lady in the office. I explained my situation and she asked me to hold on so she could look up my information. She came back and told me that they had not received my test scores and I should fax them. I faxed my scores and a week later received the packet with all information for reporting to the Border Patrol academy. The only problem was that I would be leaving in two weeks. This meant that I had two weeks to get ready for five-months of training with very strenuous physical demands and I was not in shape. I decided to begin exercising to get in shape for the academy. I began by walking around my block at home a couple times a week and eventually got to where I could jog and not have to stop every fifty yards. I did this for a week and figured I was ready to go. The bus was waiting for us at 7:00AM at old sector headquarters on Beyer to head to the airport on our way to Georgia. The flight was all day because of the lay overs and plane transfers but we finally arrived to Savana Georgia at around 9:00PM. I was raised in San Diego all my life and when I stepped off the plane, I felt 80% humidity immediately. The humidity was so bad that it made you sweat as soon as you walked off the plane. What the hell had I got myself into? We all boarded a bus and were driven to the Federal Law Enforcement Training center in the city of Brunswick. We got to the academy around 11:00PM and were told to meet in a building to receive all our training manuals. There we received all our training manuals and a backpack that barley accommodated all our training manuals. The manuals weighed about 25lbs and we would have to carry them from class to class. We were all placed in the dorms with a roommate and were expected to report to class Monday morning. Fortunately, we arrived on a Friday and had two days to rest and prepare. While driving through the academy that night, my roommate and I noticed the obstacle course. We both agreed that we would run the course in the morning to get an idea of the physical demand. My roommate and I got up early and headed to the course to try and see what kind of time we made running the course. The first obstacle was a 7-foot inverted wall. No problem, piece of cake I said to my roommate. I’ll go first. I got a running start and away I went. I jumped at the wall straight ahead and ended up with both elbows on top of the wall. Oh shit! I hung there for about 5 seconds and down I came. This was not a good start and as soon as my roommate saw me fail, he decided to wait on the obstacle course. The next day was the physical training evaluation which consisted of strength training, balance and agility and running. I did pretty good on the agility and balance training and was outstanding in the weight training. Prior to leaving for the academy, I was training to weight lift and was strong, I maxed out on all the weight lifting evaluations. Unfortunately, the running test was yet to come. The running portion consisted of running a mile and a half in 13 minutes or less. I knew because I didn’t run often and was five foot nine and 248 pounds it was not going to be fun. We all started the run and immediately all the young guys were gone, I was left in the back with the slower runners. The run consisted of 6 laps and I was jogging pretty good but after the second lap I felt a horrible pain in my quadricep. Oh shit! I had pulled a muscle in my quad and was going to be in pain for the rest of the run. I didn’t imagine that I would be running the entire time at the academy with a pulled muscle. Well, you can imagine what it was like to run every day with a pulled quadricep. Not to mention trying to keep up with the scholastics. It was very hard but I would not give up. I was 35 years old and the cutoff age was 36. There would be no way I could return to the academy in a year. At that time the academy was five months long and the mid-term there would be a pre-final PT test (Physical Training) to see where you stood. I suffered through the running, walking to class every day