COMMAERNTTARY
HOMELAND SECURITY TRAINING
After 50 years of covering
the news on television and
radio, I never imagined
that I would ever take part
By John Wilson
in a specialized training program of
the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security. The Tampa office is active
and operates 24 hours a day, working
with thousands of federal agents in
this country who also work in 50
other countries. With more than 70
different investigative units trying to control human trafficking,
illegal immigration and narcotics, they deal with smuggled items
such as counterfeit money, jewelry, handbags and weapons,
which in one particular incident, included a highly classified
military sniper scope that was being smuggled to Russia. This
federal law enforcement agency also focuses on child exploitation,
pornography and sex crimes. It was created because of the tragic
failures that led to the fatal attacks on September 11, 2001, when
Middle East hijackers took over four commercial airplanes and
carried out suicide missions, attacking the Pentagon and the
World Trade Center in New York’s twin towers, while a fourth
plane was brought down in Pennsylvania.
I got a revealing look inside the Department of Homeland
Security in Tampa with about two dozen other citizens including
attorney Brad Culpepper, the former defensive tackle for the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers; Julie Weintraub, president of Gold &
Diamond Source; and Assistant U. S. Attorney Thomas Palermo
of the Department of Justice, Tampa. We had a full day of practice
on the firing range in Hillsborough County, where we cornered
suspects and fired weapons, including fully automatic U.S.
military-grade M4 carbines.
The course that we took every Wednesday evening for twoand
John Wilson
a half hours for more than a month allowed us to partake in
144 TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE | MARCH/APRIL 2019
a series of simulated, but actual cases
staged in Tampa in a major shopping
center, the Port of Tampa and the
Homeland Security section near
Tampa International Airport, where
passengers carrying suspected illegal
items are detained and questioned.
There was a brief session dealing
with simple hand-to-hand combat
techniques and how to effectively
use expandable riot batons to disable
a suspect. The session was designed to give us a real look at
drug dealers, smugglers and human traffickers. Each one of
us played simulated roles as federal agents, making arrests
and conducting investigative operations as members of the
Department of Homeland Security.
The Homeland Security office is busy because of growing
worldwide airline connections, seaport traffic and the maritime
cargo that comes and goes out of our Tampa port. Homeland
Security receives much of its media attention as a result of its
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on the Mexican
border and elsewhere, but that is a small component of this
multiforce agency that also conducts cyber security investigations
and provides assistance during times of natural disasters.
My personal experience with Homeland Security during this
six-week training course was a somber reminder of the critical
importance of this large organization with its complicated mission.
If it had been in place before 9 a.m. that day nearly 18 years ago
when almost 3,000 people were killed by 19 terrorist hijackers,
things might have turned out differently. I am certainly glad the
organization exists now. 9
EDITOR’S NOTE: John Wilson, who retired from Fox TV in 2014,
worked more than 50 years in radio and television news broadcasting.