Eagle Pass, Texas – The United States Border Patrol has a lot of negativity publicity along the border, and the agents of the Border Patrol’s Del Rio Sector, comprising the cities of Del Rio, Eagle Pass, Carrizo Springs, Uvalde, and other border towns, are no strangers to that. However, what many may fail to realize is that the Border Patrol does not just arrest illegal immigrants who have crossed the border, but many times they are called to save lives. For Border Patrol Agent Neal Wilson, saving lives is no new trick.
The Border Patrol’s Del Rio Sector has recently been putting on Emergency Medical Technician, or EMT, training classes, certifying many of the sector’s field agents to be better prepared to go above and beyond in helping decide the balance of a life they find on the balance. Border Patrol Agent (BPA) Neal Wilson is going through one such class, but he’s no stranger to the stressful feelings involved in saving the life of another.
“It’s really important for [the Border Patrol] to have certified EMTs out in the field, so we can respond to any kind of life-threatening emergencies or even just to help someone with minor injuries,” BPA Wilson told Channel 23 News. Agent Wilson was previously a Student Safety Officer with Ohio State University’s Department of Pubic Safety, where his life-saving training was called into action once before.
Agent Wilson told us that in 2012, during his second year at Ohio State, he was being trained in the Department’s use of mountain bikes, which are used in patrol operations at the university’s main campus. It was during that training that disaster struck. “We had finished all the mandatory obstacles and requirements of the course, and were over by one of the optional obstacles where some of the officers were practicing,” Wilson said. That was when he noticed the disaster: several baby ducks were on a collision course with a nearby guardrail.
“I couldn’t just stand there and watch the ducks meet such a gruesome fate,” Wilson said, reliving the agony in his mind. “I was at the top of the obstacle, a long staircase with sectional railings, and they were at the bottom. I raced down the hill next to the stairs and dove in front of the ducks, colliding with the guard rail in their place.”
Agent Wilson saved 12 downy little lives that day, but it came at a heavy cost: he broke one of his arms and required reconstructive surgery. He still has the scar along his wrist to prove it. But according to him, it was a price worth paying. “I mean, come on, they were baby ducks,” he said, laughing about the incident as if it was not a horrific event narrowly avoided by his own heroism. “I couldn’t just let so many fuzzy little things that quack being obliterated by a railing.”
Hopefully, the situations where are a life is in critical danger along the border will be far and few, but with Border Patrol Agents like Neal Wilson out there serving and protecting, everyone can breathe a little easier, knowing a veteran protector of life and innocence is out there watching over them.