When you take a normal, hometown boy and send him through intensive police training, followed by extensive Special Ops training and then toss him into the midst of the 80's drug scene of Miami followed quickly by eight years in the jungles of Thailand? One hell of a DEA agent!Our speaker this past weekend was terrific. We all promised to share as little of the details as possible so he isn't brought before a committee. So here's Ten things I learned:
1. No boat, sorry Sarah. But he said when he was assigned to Miami, it was actually very Miami Vice like. Large expensive boats, designer clothes and lots of drugs and money.
2. His biggest irritation with media representation is procedure issues. He said most everything you see or read has tons of procedural no-no's which may have occurred 10-20 years ago but would NOT occur now-a-days.
3. It was very easy to tell that he loved the thrill of the job. This is a man who lives for life on the edge. He'd talk about things he'd done, situations he'd been in which were to say the least unbelievable and then, as we're all gasping in horror, he'd say, "It was GREAT!"
4. He said what he didn't like most of the time was bureaucracy.
5. I didn't get the chance to ask him what goes through his mind right before he busts in to a room, but I get the impression that, "Let's Rock and Roll!" Wouldn't be too far off. I thought it'd be, "Oh s*%&" But after hearing him talk, there was apparently only one "Oh S#$%" moment and he didn't think that until AFTER he was already in deep doo.
6. Another interesting thing we learned. Scarface... not so off the mark. That was sort of scary.
7. He says the biggest problem for DEA agents is that they deal with a lot of drugs and a LOT of money and they see the lifestyle that money brings, day in and day out. They even pretend to be living it then go home to their modest little house. But often, the lure of the money is too much and they become corrupt.
8. Thailand I can't talk about much... because I don't think I'm supposed to. And you don't know how difficult that is for me, because it's the most exciting stuff! Maybe I'll put it in a book, slap the word "fiction" on there and no one will know any better :o)
9. He's not single. He got divorced in the middle of his Thailand assignment and eventually had to have his family flown home on an emergency flight when a general didn't take too kindly to the way he was wiping out his heroine business. But after leaving that assignment (no, he didn't chicken out or give it up, he was sent home because people wanted him dead in a bad way)he eventually made it back here after assignments elsewhere in the US and retired to PI work. He met his current wife at a local gym and they began dating... All together, his life seems to have taken a decidedly calmer turn.
10. I thought that while there were alpha men out there, they weren't as "alpha" as what I'd read. I was wrong.
Debby who arranged this speaker (she found him while researching a book) calls him Batman. To his face. He just smiles. Definately Batman.
April
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