Standoff

Acknowledgments

To start off with, I’d like to thank Lieutenant Colonel Mike “Panda” Pandolfo, USAF, ret. for organizing field trips, interviews, managing the technical editing, proofreading, and providing the odd good idea here and there for this book. I couldn’t have written it without him.

In researching Standoff, I spent some time in El Paso, TX, hanging out with Deputy Manny Marquez from the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office on a ridealong (organized by Panda). Now that was an eye-opening experience. Thank you for that, Manny.

Thanks also to EPSCO CSI for some interesting insights, and for providing some equally interesting introductions. (I met this one guy through them who sat on his veranda on the American side of the border with an AR-15, waiting for the drug couriers to trip the sensors on his property. Yeah, like I said, interesting!)

Of course, thanks to Sheriff Wiles for approving the time I spent with Deputy Marquez and the folks in CSI. Thanks also go to Christine Acosta, EPCSO Public Affairs Director, and to Deputy Eileen Lopez, the acting PIO at the time.

Thank you Texas Rangers for an enlightening briefing session (and a delicious “Texas friendly” lunch). And thank you El Paso Police Department for some invaluable insights.

And of course, thanks also to a significant number of other law enforcement officers and private individuals in El Paso who freely gave of their knowledge and experience, but were reluctant to let their names appear in print. Again, thank you — you know who you are.