EL PASO, Texas — El Paso, Texas is where worlds collide. Standing in between these two worlds are 51 Oklahoma National Guardsmen. 2 News Oklahoma's Brodie Myers traveled to El Paso to find out more about the work they’re doing to protect our homeland.
"Oklahoma guys is really big on going out to assist other states like that. You know, our guys is really good to push out and give any assistance that we can," said Specialist Handsome Sheppard, who is stationed in El Paso.
Oklahoma National Guardsmen got their chance to help when Gov. Kevin Stitt authorized them to assist the state of Texas in Operation Lone Star. These guardsmen and airmen have lives outside their service right here in Oklahoma.
One of them is Broken Arrow’s Robert Hinton. Just twenty years old ... protecting an international border with a rifle across his chest. That strap on Hinton's shoulder is heavy. Reminding him of his duty.
"It really shows the responsibility that we have down here. It’s not a safe task. We have these weapons to defend ourselves, if need be, and protect our battle buddies," Specialist Hinton said.
Everyone in El Paso volunteered to help. Each one has their own reason, but for Hinton, he just wanted to lay eyes on the situation.
"I wanted to make a difference. You hear all the time about the border crisis on the news, different articles, all the time you hear about it," Hinton said, "And I wanted to see what it was about. It can’t hurt to have more good people down here."
What he saw was two different worlds.
Step off the plane in El Paso, and you'll see a beautiful city, surrounded by mountainous terrain, with nothing but the sun in the sky, casting its glow over the city's dry heat.
Make your way closer to the border, and you'll see the situation in Juarez, Mexico. 1.4 million people packed into a city about half the size of Tulsa.
"Literally, right across this canal, is almost what you could compare to a war torn city. It’s destroyed, you see family’s with nothing just completely desperate to cross," Hinton said.
Oklahoma’s forces see those families on the daily. While our camera was rolling, a group of people from Mexico were glancing across the fence, while one of the guardsmen, rifle in hand, shook his head no.
They didn’t cross.
Some families aren’t so compliant. Some are even putting their children in harm’s way.
"So we have the C-wire to protect the border, and just to get over, just seeing how, they don’t mind trying to slide through the wire and get cut up," Sr. Airman Coleise Thomas said.
Part of operation lone star is keeping drugs out of the U.S. Back in April, at the very site where 2 News cameras rolled, authorities seized more than $400,000 worth of fentanyl.
There are well-intentioned people coming to the border, but there are plenty of criminals too, causing Thomas to reflect.
"Coming to volunteer for this mission to see how it is for them, as opposed to how it is, it makes you even prouder to be [an American], because that’s not a way that we have to live," Thomas said.
A way of life envied by those a world away.
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