SANTA FE SPRINGS – For the past 18 months, Army Capt. Steve Bautista escorted troops and dignitaries all over Iraq and did his best to prevent fellow soldiers from encountering roadside bombs.
Now, the 29-year-old is back wearing another uniform, and protecting a different group.
To celebrate California Highway Patrol Officer Bautista’s return July 7, colleagues at the Santa Fe Springs CHP office threw him a welcome-home party.
Capt. Dan Minor also gave Bautista back his badge, No. 18191, and presented the officer with a framed, signed photo of the squad taken while Bautista was gone.
“We’re proud to have you back in the ranks of the CHP,” Minor said.
The CHP station on Orr and Day Road is home to 104 officers. It has had five officers serve a military tour of duty. Bautista is the most recent.
“We were a security force. Our main priority were the units getting in and out. It could be as small as 150 guys and gals to 750,” Bautista said.
But his main role was as electronics warfare officer. Bautista said part of his job included setting up a device in vehicles that would detect and prevent roadside bombs.
Getting shot at was not unusual.
While in Iraq, Bautista heard from his colleagues via e-mail and was able to send electronic missives now and then. Minor sent him a CHP flag which he flew on the Kuwaiti side. He also received care packages from colleagues.
Minor said Bautista always asked how everybody was doing and whether everyone was safe.
“We have a real stand-up kind of guy here,” he said.
Officer Erick Sumner agreed.
“He’s awesome. He had to go do a job far, far away and he did,” Sumner said.
He said Bautista told his colleagues via e-mails to be safe and be careful.
“It’s funny that a guy in a war is telling us to be careful. … He’s a guy who truly cares about the safety of officers,” Sumner said.
“We’re really glad he’s back and in one piece. And he can start in the next chapter of his life.”
Bautista got back stateside in mid-May and returned to work July 7. Right now, he is assigned to the front desk because he needs to undergo refresher training at the CHP academy later this month.
Under CHP policy, anyone who has been gone from the department for six months or more has to be retrained, according to Joe Zizi, public affairs officer for the Santa Fe Springs CHP office.
This was Bautista’s second tour of duty in Iraq.
His first stint was from March 2003 to March 2004 as part of the 4th Infantry Division out of Fort Hood, Texas. He remembers walking around with a vest on and a gas mask at the ready.
Fast forward to December 2006 when he was already out of the Army and employed with the California Highway Patrol. He just finished his three-month training at the local station which meant he could roll out on the streets without a training officer.
But a letter from the military led to him to temporarily shelve his CHP career.
One of his training officers told him they would be keeping him. Bautista then showed him the letter.
His superiors understood and told him to do what he has to and come back safely.
He went back to Iraq in May 2007, this time as part of a California Army National Guard unit out of Inglewood. Home base was Camp Virginia in northern Kuwait.
“The mission for this one is go to Point A and Point B and come back,” he said.
He had less interaction with the Iraqis compared to his first tour of duty and he missed that.
Bautista is the oldest of Aurelia and Oscar Bautista’s two sons. He grew up in Vallejo and joined the Army in 2002.
He entered the CHP Academy in Sacramento in 2006, graduated and was assigned to the Santa Fe Springs station. Eventually, he wants to be in the department’s Office of Air Operations.
“The CHP as a whole, and I’m speaking the truth, and the Santa Fe Springs (office) has been way over the top in supporting me,” he said.
“When I came back, there were open arms and I was only there 80 days,” Bautista said.
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