![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/bfv-cbp-stephanie-anaya-3.jpg\")
Navy veteran Stephanie Anaya served as a hospital corpsman surgical tech and signed on as a Customs and Border Protection agent after leaving the service in 2007. She said her military background made CBP seem like a natural choice.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Photo Credit: Agent Shana Zimmerman\/Border Patrol<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same time, recruiters rely on a personal element to help drive interest among women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The most effective technique we have is in utilizing our current employees,” said Joe Samuels, a regional recruiting director. “They are the best storytellers for what it is like to be part of the Federal Air Marshal Service. So when we go out to different organizations, we utilize that female workforce to help make that connection.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Supervisory Federal Air Marshal Sukeena Stephens is among those who help tell that story. A New York native, she witnessed the 9\/11 attack on the Pentagon and knew she had a mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “When they put out the announcement that they would be hiring for this, I immediately submitted my application,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While women may shy away from the role of undercover in-flight security, Stephens said gender can make the job a perfect fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “When you think about what a federal air marshal looks like, you are not looking for a female. So it gives me an element of surprise, something we all wish we could have,” she said. “When events happen, people just see you as someone who is being helpful. They don’t see you as a law enforcement officer.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said that as a woman, she finds it easier sometimes to keep a cool head, to bring a situation back down, where a man might tend to escalate. That’s a helpful trait to have in a pressurized steel tube at 50,000 feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But despite potential advantages, women in general continue to steer clear of these jobs. While the agencies don’t like to speculate, it’s clear that public perception plays a role. As Stephens noted, people just don’t visualize women in these scenarios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same time, social constructs may limit the applicant pool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We know that women who apply have the same values as men, but they may have priorities that lean more toward home and family, so they have issues when it comes to rotating shifts and time in the field,” Chavez said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women who have made the leap say they have found ready acceptance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “When I am out at my station, my colleagues don’t see me as a girl. I am part of the team,” Anaya said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And she is looking for others like her to be part of that same team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I have given presentations in schools, and young girls will look at me like, ‘Wow, you can do that?’ I see their eyes light up.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When it comes to hiring veterans, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has a great track record: Of its 21,000 agents, 28.8 percent are prior military.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":98779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":25,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2158],"class_list":["post-105124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-veterans"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"CIGVRVUX3JGPXABWAYZ3RK7VHQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/veterans\/2015\/10\/26\/women-veterans-recruited-for-federal-border-duty\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n