The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center has a real life "G.I. Joe" working as an officer safety instructor.
J. D. Roberts, officer safety and survival senior instructor at the FLETC, has lived a life that even Jean Claude Van Damme, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone would envy.
Self described as "a very action oriented guy," Roberts has spent his life either on dangerous military missions to foreign lands or training soldiers and law enforcement officers for what they will face in the field.
"If it’s action-packed and physical, I like it," said Roberts. "I’ve always been that way."
Roberts was born in Tennessee, but growing up as a military brat, he said that home was wherever his family was stationed. His father was in the U.S. Army for 20 years.
Roberts said that being a soldier was all he ever wanted to be, so joining the Army like his father was an easy decision.
He served on two tours in Vietnam and was wounded during both tours. Although it might seem like being wounded twice might deter you from wanting that kind of life, Roberts never thought of leaving his dangerous but exciting career.
After his first tour in Vietnam, Roberts was selected for the Army Officer Candidate School (OCS). He was commissioned in 1968 and assigned to the 10th Special Forces Group (Green Berets) in Bad Tolze, Germany.
After being wounded during his second tour in Vietnam, Roberts was sent to Army Ranger school at Fort Benning, Ga. After graduation, he immediately became an instructor at the school.
After serving for three years as an instructor he was sent to Korea in 1974, which is where he met his wife Sally.
After his remote tour to Korea, Roberts went back to Fort Benning and served another three years as an instructor.
Although he was again serving as an instructor, Roberts’ Special Forces days were far from over.
In 1979, he was selected as an original member of quite possibly the most elite unit in the U.S. military, the Delta Force.
Roberts said that Delta Force’s main mission was hostage rescue, but that the unit was "the last resort" to anything that may threaten national security in the U.S.
"If it could cause great harm to the U.S., they would send a team of us (Delta Force) to eliminate it, fix it or get it," said Roberts.
Roberts and his team were involved in the raid into Iran to rescue American hostages in the early 1980s. The raid turned out to be unsuccessful and a number of Army, Navy and Air Force men were killed when the plane they were on exploded over the desert. All the members of Roberts team had gotten off the plane prior to the explosion.
After an investigation, Delta Force was found to have done everything right, although other agencies involved were found to have made some fatal mistakes.
Due to the mistakes made, it was determined that all of the different specialized teams of the military, should be put together so that all of the services were on the same page with each other for future missions.
After Roberts retired from the Army, he began working as a consultant.
Again his days of special forces were not over. He was asked to help with the rescue of a little girl from Dallas, Texas who was kidnapped by her father and taken to Jordan.
Roberts was among the team of four men who were sent to Jordan to rescue the girl. The story is well-known in America and was even made into the television movie, "Desperate Rescue," which used the names of Roberts and the other three team members who made the rescue.
Roberts came to Artesia in 1998 from the FLETC in Glynco, Ga. He began working for the FLETC in Glynco in 1990 as a firearms instructor and later a survival tactics instructor.
He has three children, Sarah, Rebecca and his son, Sam who is about to graduate from North Georgia Military College.
Roberts, who obviously is an outdoorsman, said that Artesia has become a place he really enjoys living in.
"I am really not a fan of crowded places, like cities. There are too many predators," said Roberts. "It feels really safe in Artesia and I like that."
"Also, I really like the desert Southwest, so this is a nice place to be," said Roberts.
Roberts feels that the method of teaching that officers respond to the most is hands-on training. Training like the officer safety and survival training with simunitions (similar to paint balls) is a great tool because officers really learn their lesson when they are hit by one of the rounds.
Along with his duties as an instructor, Roberts is also the Deputy U.S. Marshall at the FLETC. That gives him the responsibility to investigate all crimes that occur on the campus and make arrests when necessary.
As if that is not enough, Roberts also serves as a trainer and consultant to the Pecos Valley Drug Task Force.
He may be a busy guy, but Roberts wouldn’t have it any other way.
"I love action and I love to be physical, so I think I’m in the right profession," concluded Roberts.