Inside a Military Patrol on America’s Southern Border
by Jose Campos
“You have to watch your step. This is rattlesnake territory.”
From the ground, the operation looks and feels like a deployment. For soldiers patrolling the vast, open terrain around Presidio, Texas, the mission includes squad level reconnaissance in remote territory. They know first hand that the U.S. southern border is more than a political line – now, it’s also a military one.
Under the direction of U.S. Northern Command, Joint Task Force – Southern Border aligns the U.S. efforts to seal the southern border and repel illegal activity.
This is not about optics — it’s about operational readiness.
READ MORE from Jose Campos: Along the Texas Border, US Troops Secure the Frontier
The language used by the brass is clear and uncompromising: “full-scale, agile, and all-domain operations.”
These troops are not alone in the effort. Coordinating with federal agents, state law enforcement, and other joint partners, they are part of a dynamic force that means to keep the border sealed.
In the field, part of that translates to, soldiers moving amid the scrub, and through steep, rocky washes.
On one patrol, soldiers from Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment — part of the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division — move along a weathered trail.
They remain alert for threats both human and animal.
“You have to watch your step,” one soldier told me when not on patrol. “This is rattlesnake territory.”
The soldiers aren’t worried.
“We got this.”
As the recon mission ended, the patrol had encountered no crises. But no complacency either.
This is the southern frontier.
Jose Campos covers security for Soldier of Fortune.