Texas DPS Gunboats

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TexasJim
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Texas DPS Gunboats

Post by TexasJim »

Just saw one of the six(!) Texas DPS Gunboats at Rockport Market Days. Thirty-four feet long, three(!)300 HP outboards, costing the taxpayers $580,000 each. They are "shallow draft" for patrolling the Rio Grande, assisting Customs & Border Patrol. I saw two of them in Rockport a couple years back. At least four machine guns, armor plate and all. Why were they in Rockport? Patrolling the ICW, of course. We have a lot of drug and immigrant smuggling in Rockport! Looked like joyriding to an uninformed(former) taxpayer.

Look them up on Google at "Texas DPS Gunboats" for some movie hype. Your tax dollars at waste! Not being political, of course.

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Re: Texas DPS Gunboats

Post by texnomad »

Yep saw it this morning after a non-productive time of frothing water with a mirrodine. The had not mounted the machine guns yet when I went by the first time. I also have my doubts about the worth of the units.
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Re: Texas DPS Gunboats

Post by JMS »

Only see them in S. Padre before....Could have been in Rockport for training exercise, etc....Would rather see our guys and gals over gunned opposed to under gunned


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TroutSupport.com
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Re: Texas DPS Gunboats

Post by TroutSupport.com »

;-) ... that was my boat.. I don't like potlickers ;-)

Kidding.. yeah they are ominous looking.. I've only seen them on the lower coast. I think they have a big Simmons Widebody as well.. Sick!
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Re: Texas DPS Gunboats

Post by OrangeQuest »

TexasJim wrote:Just saw one of the six(!) Texas DPS Gunboats at Rockport Market Days. Thirty-four feet long, three(!)300 HP outboards, costing the taxpayers $580,000 each. They are "shallow draft" for patrolling the Rio Grande, assisting Customs & Border Patrol. I saw two of them in Rockport a couple years back. At least four machine guns, armor plate and all. Why were they in Rockport? Patrolling the ICW, of course. We have a lot of drug and immigrant smuggling in Rockport! Looked like joyriding to an uninformed(former) taxpayer.

Look them up on Google at "Texas DPS Gunboats" for some movie hype. Your tax dollars at waste! Not being political, of course. TexasJim
added it is taxpayers flipping the bill and leave off the why? So there is a price tag on human life?

"The stakes are high. Since 2007, roughly 56,000 people in Mexico have been killed in the escalating drug cartel violence. The U.S. government and local police agencies are working around the clock, 365 days a year to try and stop the flow of drugs, weapons and illegal immigrants into America from our southern neighbor."
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Re: Texas DPS Gunboats

Post by hipshot »

Hmmmm.......................... just wondering how many times the smugglers have shot at Texas Jim as he attempted to interdict a load of dope........
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kickingback
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Re: Texas DPS Gunboats

Post by kickingback »

I want to know why they plaster HIGHWAY PATROL on a big ol' boat that does not go near the highway!
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Re: Texas DPS Gunboats

Post by Drifting Yak »

Had lunch with some of the fine folks that man these beastly boats - was down in Corpus - and can tell you that the stories they tell are hair raising - would never want to trade jobs with them!
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Re: Texas DPS Gunboats

Post by hipshot »

Drifting Yak wrote:Had lunch with some of the fine folks that man these beastly boats - was down in Corpus - and can tell you that the stories they tell are hair raising - would never want to trade jobs with them!
A lot of insane stuff goes on down there; those smugglers have no respect for life or property. DPS rotates officers from all over the state down there for short tours to bolster the manpower down there, and they come back with some crazy stories. Several of our officers went down there to work with local agencies for a week at a time; they learned a lot about smugglers and their tactics and came back a little more appreciative of just how ruthless and amoral some people can be. The border country is a whole different world.
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Re: Texas DPS Gunboats

Post by Blue Devil 7 »

Drifting Yak wrote:Had lunch with some of the fine folks that man these beastly boats - was down in Corpus - and can tell you that the stories they tell are hair raising - would never want to trade jobs with them!
I'd like to hear some of these stories. Maybe the more they get told, the greater the appreciation folks will have for the usefulness of these assets.
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Re: Texas DPS Gunboats

Post by hipshot »

"I'd like to hear some of these stories. Maybe the more they get told, the greater the appreciation folks will have for the usefulness of these assets."

If the stories go out to the general public people will be demanding that the officers and agents be prosecuted for shooting smugglers. In today's politically correct world, smugglers hauling dope across the border are justified in shooting at those officers and agents who are interfering with their efforts to eke out an honest living, and returning fire is a ghastly, brutal, unacceptable act of aggression.

If you ever get the chance to read No Second Place Winner by Bill Jordan, you'll get a giggle out of the border gunfight with the smugglers in one of the chapters. Back in his day (he was a Border Patrolman back when they still used horses to cover most of the border) some of those gunfights were considered social events, and the whole town would turn out to get in a little shootin'.
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Re: Texas DPS Gunboats

Post by Blue Devil 7 »

hipshot wrote: If the stories go out to the general public people will be demanding that the officers and agents be prosecuted for shooting smugglers. In today's politically correct world, smugglers hauling dope across the border are justified in shooting at those officers and agents who are interfering with their efforts to eke out an honest living, and returning fire is a ghastly, brutal, unacceptable act of aggression.
Man, I hate this "Politically Correct" BS. It is so backwards.
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Re: Texas DPS Gunboats

Post by hipshot »

Oh, so true. Don't know why people want to rely on the mainstream media and a bunch of other morons to tell them what to think.
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