It was her father who first brought the Border Patrol to her attention. He had been working on a task force with a Customs supervisor who described the Border Patrol as an exciting career that provided “some of the best law enforcement training in the world.” Underdown took the test that was the first step for both U.S. Border Patrol and U.S. Customs candidates in 1979. She subsequently interviewed with the Border Patrol chief of the Detroit sector. Soon after, both the Border Patrol and the U.S. Customs Service offered her a job. For a young adventurous Underdown, it was the idea of working outdoors and driving a jeep in the warm California climate that sealed the deal.

She spent the first seven years of her career in San Diego before being promoted to her first supervisory position in Yuma, Arizona. There, she met and married her husband Mike, who is now retired from the Border Patrol, and spent three years in what she describes as a great community. And then Underdown began to move east—two years in El Paso, then seven years in New Orleans where she eventually became the Director of the legacy INS District.

Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Lynn M. Underdown retired in May 2007, after managing one of the busiest and most productive CBP Border Patrol sectors.

Asked if she had faced any difficulties or discrimination as a woman in law enforcement, Underdown says, “The Border Patrol always judged women and men by the same standard. Doing your job was what mattered.”

Balancing a career and family was difficult, Underdown acknowledged. Soon the Border Patrol put that balancing act to the test, offering Underdown a promotion as sector chief in Miami. This was a historic opportunity; the Miami position would make Underdown the first female sector chief in the Border Patrol.

Her family pulled together to support her. Underdown’s husband stayed in New Orleans in his position as the chief patrol agent to provide a home base for the children so that she could go to Miami and make history.

The separation was difficult and required great sacrifice but Underdown says, “no one grows if they stay in their comfort zone.” She enjoyed six years in the role of chief patrol agent in Miami before being promoted to the Senior Executive Service as the chief patrol agent of the Rio Grande Valley Sector in 2005. She now retires as the highest ranking woman in the Border Patrol.

Does she see any changes in the Patrol since she started? She said that today’s Border Patrol has many more resources: more personnel, sensors, cameras, GPS equipment, and training that is more sophisticated. This is a far cry from when Underdown was dropped off in the field with a blanket, a radio and a flashlight because of the high price of gasoline.

Underdown’s achievement, she said, is making a difference in people’s lives, such as seeing a new agent come into the Border Patrol and develop and having some hand in that. She loves training and serving as a mentor and sees that as a significant contribution. Underdown would like to be remembered, “as an agent for change and for having played a part in mapping the future of the agency.”

After retirement, Underdown plans to spend time with her family and grandchildren. She loves to garden, delighting in the beauty of the finished product, and enjoys getting her hands in the dirt. She also likes to cultivate plants and see them grow. This is no surprise. Chief Underdown will no doubt nurture and develop her plants with the same care and attention that she gave to her career and to those colleagues who “worked the line” with her, protecting our borders.