Eddie Young

After thirty-plus years as an agent with Customs and Border Protection, Air and Marine Operations (AMO), Eddie Young retired as the Executive Assistant Commissioner in 2020. Although his career spanned over thirty years, Mr. Young has a connection that goes back almost fifty years. In 1972, he was in the first grade, and in the middle of the school year, his family relocated to Tucson, Arizona. The United States Congressional Session of 1969 introduced a bill that eventually passed into law. That law formally established the United States Customs Air Program. As the program was established over the next few years, following the 1969 legislation, Jerry Young, Mr. Young’s father, began his twenty-plus year career with the newly established Aviation Program in 1972. This was the reason for Mr. Young’s relocation to Tucson and the beginning of his lifetime association with this uniquely capable, highly recognized, and extremely agile Federal Law Enforcement organization.

 

Having something like AMO in one’s family and career life for nearly fifty years makes it almost impossible not to develop a strong love and passion for its mission and people. His dedication and love for what AMO does and for the people who do it has extended past his 2020 retirement. To this day, he has a “Google alert” set for “Air and Marine Operations.” Nearly every day, he reads a news article, video, or social media feed about the incredible things men and women do at AMO. This is how he maintains his lifelong connection with AMO.

 

It was this continued connection, the Puerto Rico shooting in 2022, and several calls that followed from former colleagues that led to the formation of the Air and Marine Family Foundation (AMFF). AMO provided Mr. Young with purpose, family, and the ability to fulfill his ambition to be a federal law enforcement agent. He desires the AMFF to provide a way for him to give back continuously.