Border patrol agent can’t be stationed in Texas for PTSD
Jamie and Andy11M send us a link to the Detroit Free Press about Anthony Gazvoda, a soldier still in the Michigan National Guard who went to work for the Homeland Security Department as a border patrol agent. They stationed him at Laredo, Texas;
He’s suing the Department of Homeland Security over a job assignment in Texas, saying the dry, hot state reminds him too much of Afghanistan, and it’s too painful to work there.
[…]
In 2009, Gazvoda served a nine-month tour in Afghanistan, where he worked as a road clearance specialist. His job was to go ahead of everyone else during missions, draw out the enemy and engage them in gunfights. He was shot 34 times and earned an Army Commendation Medal with Valor for rescuing a soldier from a bombed-out Humvee, while under enemy fire.
[…]
After a few months in Texas, Gazvoda began having panic attacks and sleep issues. He visited the VA there but to no avail. He took an unpaid administrative leave and moved to Michigan, where government doctors would eventually diagnose him with PTSD and recommend he not be stationed in Texas. They found a number of similarities between Texas and Afghanistan: Both were hot, dry and heavily populated. Both also had non-English speaking residents, which doctors concluded was another trigger.
Gazvoda asked to be reinstated last year, and he asked for a compassionate reassignment to be near his doctors. Homeland Security denied his request and gave him three days to show up at work. He got a lawyer instead. I’m no doctor, but I’m thinking that he needs another job, because whenever I think of border patrol agents, I picture them working in a hot barren terrain, you know, along the southern border. If that triggers his PTSD, another occupation seems appropriate. Then again HSD, should take his problems into account and there are enough positions in more hospitable climes, I’m sure they could accommodate him, if they really wanted to do so.
Category: Veterans in the news
Hmmm. I wonder if the CBP agents duking it out with illegals every day in that hot, barren land suffer from PTSD at all.
This gentleman needs to find another job.
WORD
To ya motha ice ice baby
Yo home brew,
Taught you was in the klink wit da uther muthers?
T Bitty Ho
Fuck DHS with a roll of rusty concertina. People like him (and all of us) are on the list, remember?
Lets see. He was shot 34 times and earned an Army Commendation Medal with Valor for rescuing a soldier from a bombed-out Humvee, while under enemy fire. shot 34 times.
Umm, his records are on the way, right?
If I read the article correctly, I think there was something of a misprint – it probably should have read “he was shot AT 34 times” instead of as it is. That makes more sense, at least.
Shot 34 times? … Yeah … I doubt that.
I would say they took contact 34 times and being route clearance one of the most dangers jobs there, ya they got hit almost every time they left the wire. Was with a JTF USACE Iraq and went out on a route clearance patrol with them twice and them fuckers took some shit.Their job is to get blown up or shot at and if not both. Nothing but mad respect for those young kids that did it.
The article says 34 fire fights.
Army Commendation Medal with Valor I think a Bronze Star was in order for saving a life. But I guess they save them for the “O’s.
I recall a chat with an old German gent once upon a time way long ago.
He talked about how hard it was to keep scout units up to strength, and how hard it was to find good scouts to fill those units with.
Turns out, back in the bad ol’ days, a scouts’ job was not only just find the enemy, but get the enemy to open fire so his machinegun emplacements could be charted by the scout leader who played observer for the scouts doing the actual work.
He said a good scout was only use-able once, really lucky scouts, twice.
Sounds a bit like the route clearance guys had somewhat the same job description.
OR shot 3 or 4 times!!
The article says he was in 34 firefights and rolled over one IED.
Yes, that makes more sense. No where in the article does it say “shot 34 times”. Could we stick an “at” in up there please?
Obviously a misprint, although I know a Marine who was shot 6 times and survived. Considering the blood loss, that was a miracle.
Canadian border, maybe?
You know I was think Canadian border also,but I’m sure he will find a trigger being in the mountains and cold (AFG up north). I flew all over AFG regions south, north, east and west and you will not find a region in the US that will not put your mind back in AFG except some of the mid and north part of the east coast. I would say he needs a new job. I left my job for certain reasons.
Was gonna post about mountains, cold, snow but you covered it. Northern Iraq same thing.
It’s meaningless if he has never seen Afghanistan under those conditions. Being assigned there didn’t make you an expert on conditions countrywide.
I have some problems with his claim, but only because I think that if the environment was really triggering his PTSD it seems it would have done so almost immediately.
If he has a valid claim (and only he and his Doctors can say so), I find it hypocritical of the Government not to make “reasonable accommodations” (that’s the standard they set on the rest us running businesses, you know)…especially given that this is a government job and this would be considered a service-connected disability.
There’s plenty of places they could send him. The US/Mexico border is only 56% of our total continental US Border. They also have personnel in the Miami and New Orleans sectors.
Your correct, being route clearance they would have been in one spot. My bad I traveled in all regions working for SOTF-A Engineers S3.
He said with in a few months and I could see that as possible.
Government should make accommodations and there has to be more to the story.
Which would lead to me wondering what the policy is as far as assignments and if taking a slot other than the Mexican border screws someone who already did their time?
My understanding is that you can select a certain number of duty stations as a wishlist, but there’s no gurantee of getting them. I would imagine that there is probably a number of veteran agents who jump on vacancies up North after several years in the South. I have some FHP friends who said that when they started, you were guranteed to be posted in Mid or South Florida, then could request a transfer after about 5 years
Sounds to me like somebody thought he would get a posting on the Canadian border, and ignored the multiple people I’m sure told him you usually start in the South, then transfer North
Or an international terminal. That looks like a pretty cushy job.
Does Thule have a Border Patrol post?
Nope. Interesting place to be stationed though. Still my favorite duty station.
OK, gotta ask. How did an Army 19D end up stationed at Thule AB?
I hear there are plenty of openings at the Grand Forks station.
Would that be the border crossing just north of Kerlew in the People’s Republic of Washington?
North Dakota. Brrrrrrrr home to the -70 in winter time no thank you…
What a pussy. I work with quite a few BP agents. They have their share of dickheads, sure, but the majority are good guys and girls doing a good job.
This guy, on the other hand, is just a fucking whiner.
I work for CBP (Tech Support). You nailed it there Whitey. Don’t want this guy on my station.
What happens when his Guard unit get’s called up??
The linked article is so fucked up I can’t really believe anything it says.
However, I’ve worked for the government and I’m trying to figure out what this guy has done to make some bureaucrat expend the effort to go through all this crap, rather than just transfer him so he could be somebody else’s problem.
There’s a story here, and we’ll never hear the truth of it, I suppose. Very odd, indeed.
Your right after reading again it sounds like the writer is trying to inflate some things. The part were it makes it seem like a team went a head and tried to draw them into a fire fight. Route clearance does not operate like that and it sounds like he drove a head meaning he was the HUSKY operator and that is the most dangerous job on a clearance team other then the EOD detachment if they have one at times. The HUSKY is a rolling mind detector (the part that sates he would here voices is some what correct because you would pick that up on the sound device of the HUSKY) and can drive on a IED and made to withstand some of the blast. Another words your dick is hanging out every time and the reason they roll 5 MPH is because the HUSKY is trying to find every thing.
No doubt he had a very high stressed job.
BREAKING NEWS:
Individual was counselled 34 times by his NCO’s for minor issues such as unshined boots, failure to man up, bad breath, inability to perform basic tasks and being a GEN MIL SPEC TYPE 1 MOD 0 Pussy.
so in other words he has a mangina or Millennial disease…
🙂
How about stationing him somewhere in the Detroit Sector or the Detroit Station?
I’d wager long odds that this guy signed a mobility agreement (or similar paperwork) prior to being hired that essentially said his first assignment would be based on the needs of the government. Or, alternatively, that he knew the location of the job before he accepted it.
If so, have no sympathy for him – whether or not his claims of PTSD are true.
In the first case, my assessment is he failed to think (and do his homework) before he “signed on the dotted line”. In the second case, that means he is now apparently trying to “game the system” to get moved at government expense or score a disability retirement (also possibly true in the first case as well).
Sorry, bud. Sometimes people make mistakes and find out a new job isn’t for them. It’s tough when that happens, but your here mistake isn’t the government’s problem. You’re the one who voluntarily signed up. If you did it with your eyes closed, tough.