
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, May 1, 1993                   TAG: 9305030262
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

AGENTS DESERVE THANKS FOR DOING JOB

MY BROTHER-in-law is an agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. He is a field director (in another state) in charge of 13 agents and two offices. Before those condemning the actions of the bureau and FBI in Waco continue on their path, I'd like to tell a little of what he does - and why they should walk in his shoes a mile or so first. Then, they can judge.

He's a quiet man, so what I know about his work comes from my sister, who suffers the pangs of not knowing when - or if - he'll come home. Only recently has he told me anything and then usually only the good stuff - like serving as bodyguard to Jehan Sadat, the Reagans and the Bushes.

He spent one hot summer day in an inner tube on a swift river, wearing only his skivvies and a "wire," plotting the actions at a huge moonshine facility (also in another state) so the agents on the other side of the river could close in for a bust. He was involved in the breaking of a big case dealing with school bombings. He ferreted out the bombers, figured out their methods and arrested them before any loss of life occurred.

One time when I was flying out to see them, he was barreling down the highway on the tail of a dangerous man who was transporting cigarettes and drugs from the state I was headed to into this state. It took a week of stakeouts in rugged Virginia countryside, but he got the guy. As I was flying back home, he was on his way back to his home base. I didn't get to see him that visit.

How many of these second-guessers have spent a week or more watching what they suspect is an illegal fireworks factory, figuring out how to get in and stop the process, only to have the people involved in making the fireworks speed up the output, because they know something is "going down"? How many have spent several days picking up body parts, and retrieving them from trees and creeks after the place blows up with everybody in it, taking out a nearby trailer that a family lived in as well?

These men and women do what they have to and what they are trained to do. They should be honored for being able to go where others fear to tread, not condemned. I always worry about him when something like Waco, a prison riot or bombing happens. I don't rest easy until I find out he's not involved - this time.

SANDRA TUCKER-MAXWELL\ ROANOKE

by CNB