“The attacks hit me hard, as they did everyone else. They made me reevaluate what I wanted to do with my life,” Rothman says of that time. So he returned to his native New York—he’d grown up in a suburb of New York City—to devote himself full-time to finding a job in federal law enforcement. “I was determined to do something to help, to be part of the solution to terrorism.”

A recent graduate of Cornell University, he had been casting about for his “life’s work” on 9/11, when al Qaeda set a new career path for him and many other Americans. Rothman narrowed his career focus to agencies involved with anti-terrorism and applied to the former U.S. Customs Service.

A few weeks later, Customs contacted him for the rest of the application process: structured interview, drug testing, a background investigation. He was managing a wine store in Manhattan when he got the call: Please report for duty at the CBP port of entry, Newark, N.J. It was January 2004. CBP was three months shy of its first birthday.

Back to school
A month later, in February, he reported to the CBP Field Operations Academy, part of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center complex at Glynco, Ga., for the 16-week basic officer-training program. One of nearly 6,500 students nationwide who completed some form of CBP training in 2004, Rothman went on to become the federal training center’s Honor Graduate of the Year.

He earned this distinction by outscoring 4,957 other students. At a luncheon held in his honor in November 2004 with former CBP Commissioner Robert Bonner as the guest speaker, the federal center presented Rothman with a brand-new Smith and Wesson.38-caliber revolver and added his name to a hand-made walnut plaque that hangs in the main academic complex.

The competition for Honor Graduate is stiff, and it’s not limited to CBP or its sister agencies in DHS.

The best of the best
Each calendar year, one law enforcement graduate employed by any of several law enforcement agencies that train there—including the Federal Protective Service, Housing and Urban Development, Secret Service, National Park Service, U.S. Capitol Police, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and others—is chosen for this honor. The candidate must outperform his or her peers not only in scholarship, but also in physical fitness and firearms proficiency. Rothman had a strong scholastic background before he ever heard of FLETC, and his fitness specialty is Brazilian jiu-jitsu, a martial art that specializes in subduing opponents on the ground through positional control. He currently teaches it in the Bronx and has participated in tournaments all over the country.

But an honor grad must also score at least 95 percent in firearms proficiency. Before going to the academy, Rothman had never even been in the same room as a firearm, much less held or fired one.

Former Commissioner Bonner said CBP is fortunate to have trainees like Dan Rothman, who “represents the level of excellence that America has come to expect from the men and women of [CBP] as they protect America’s borders 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” But Rothman considers himself equally fortunate to have had the opportunity to train at a facility like the Field Operations Academy.

‘Centuries of experience’
“It was an excellent start for an officer’s career,” Rothman said. “The practical exercises in firearms use and the real-time, real-life simulations [in passenger and agricultural processing and commodity entry] all use the latest, most innovative training techniques, and all this prepared me well to start on the frontline. And there are some really, really knowledgeable people in this agency. There must be centuries’ worth of experience and expertise to tap into here.”

The CBP Field Operations Academy has trained more than 2,600 full-time CBP officers since the inception of its integrated training course in October 2003.