Two from Tucson are rarities on search-rescue team

LUKE TURF

Women have slowly gained a foothold in the U.S. Border Patrol since the first woman agent, Christine Davis, joined the force in 1975.
Davis said she was hardly welcomed with open arms.

She vividly remembers an instructor standing in a doorway of one of her first classes with his arms folded.

Intimidating, she said.

"It was an interesting time," said Davis, 53 and retired from the agency. "Even at the academy, (agents would say), 'Women should be barefoot, home and pregnant. You're taking a job away from a guy."

But the difficult reception didn't stop Davis from working in California, where she paved the way for women such as Tucson agents Rebecca Pichardo and Julie Gallagher.

Pichardo and Gallagher are the only two female Border Patrol Search Trauma and Rescue agents in the nation. Two women BORSTAR agents and a woman Special Response Team agent preceded them.

About 7 percent of the approximately 11,200 Border Patrol agents in the nation are women, said Gloria Chavez, an agency spokeswoman. It's about the same ratio in Tucson. Chavez said it's a trend that's holding steady.

Gallagher, 26, and Pichardo, 25, have been with the agency less than four years each and say being a woman isn't a factor, except that it's more difficult to relieve themselves in the desert.

Being an effective agent isn't about gender, Gallagher said.

"It's about officer presence, I think, more than male versus female," she said.

Younger illegal immigrants sometimes act disrespectfully, but they're sometimes disrespectful to male agents, too, Pichardo said.

As for their male colleagues, Pichardo and Gallagher said they're all the same crew.

"They're like our brothers," Pichardo said.

Neither Pichardo nor Gallagher has shot anyone or been shot at. But working in the busiest and deadliest area of the border for illegal crossings has left them both with memories and scars.

Each has carried bodies out of the desert. Neither has faced serious fights with immigrants, though some try to escape, but Gallagher said none get out of her grasp.

"I have a lot of scars from barbed-wire fences, but this will be my best one," Gallagher said pointing to a fresh wound on her arm.

On this day, she's back on the job after a 20-hour shift the day before when she saw the sun rise and set. A rescue mission kept her working late.

Pichardo's first rescue included sitting with a 22-year-old woman while agents looked for her husband, who fell ill in the Huachuca Mountains during a crossing. The woman was asleep when a call came over the radio to inform Pichardo she had to tell the woman her husband was dead.

"I wanted to cry before I even told her," Pichardo said. "I just sat there holding her hand. What could I say? There's nothing I could say. It's the saddest thing I've ever seen."

Nineteen-year veteran Darcy Olmos is the patrol agent in charge in Naco. She has seen many changes.

"We used to have to get the men's pants and get them tailored. We had men's shirts, too," said Olmos, 44. "Our leather gear (belt and holster) now comes with a slight curve."

And sometimes they make other uniform adjustments.

On this particular night Pichardo is returning from three weeks off. She's wearing black batting gloves designed for baseball to protect her new fingernails.

"I decided to be a girl and let them grow out," she said.

WOMEN AGENTS:

The first female agents graduated from the academy in 1975.

The first promotion of a woman agent to a supervisory job was in 1985.

Of the nation's 11,200 agents, 7 percent are women.

Two women agents have been killed in the line of duty.