By Steve Neavling
Border Patrol officials honored fallen agents from the Rio Grande Valley Sector on Monday by naming boats after them posthumously.
Twenty vessels from the RGV Sector now bear the names of the fallen agents, whose names were read aloud, followed by a strike of a bell, The Brownsville Herald reports.
Eleven of the 20 boats lined the South Padre Island Convention Center as family members and uniformed Border Patrol personnel were on hand.
“They are forever bound together by an unbreakable bond of courage and valor,” RGV Sector Acting Chief Patrol Agent Joel Martinez said during the ceremony. “And to all those gathered here this morning who have been touched by the lives we honor, you in particular bear a special burden.”
The boat-naming ceremony was intended to show “our nation’s gratitude” to the surviving families.
“It’s something that we have to do because we love you all very much and you mean a lot to us,” Martinez said.
