Basic Agent Training Guidon

To become a special agent, candidates must first complete Basic Agent Training, which includes a 16-week entry-level program. Students go through hundreds of hours of classroom instruction, firearms training, and tactical and legal instruction in addition to physical fitness training and tests. The coursework emphasizes critical thinking, problem solving, and decision-making skills. More specifically, recruits learn about drug identification, evidence handling, undercover operations, and other topics. All lessons are regularly updated to address the ever-changing circumstances that agents face in the field.

When training begins, new Basic Agent classes experience the DEA Guidon ceremony. A guidon is a flag that is forked at the end, or “swallow-tailed,” and traditionally used to designate a military unit. During the ceremony, the class receives a black guidon memorializing a fallen member of DEA or its predecessor agencies. The class pledges to carry and protect the flag for the remainder of the training.

The tradition of dedicating class flags to colleagues lost in the line of duty began in January 1997 with class number 111. Names are chosen from DEA’s Wall of Honor, a central, yet serene, place of reflection located in the DEA Museum’s lobby. Illuminated 24 hours a day, the wall includes portraits of each fallen hero and an interactive kiosk that shares their stories.

This flag is from DEA Basic Agent Training class 200, which graduated in November 2014. Unlike the flags that honor one specific individual, this guidon is dedicated to all who made the ultimate sacrifice for drug law enforcement and the nation. The change calls attention to a major milestone for DEA: its 200th BAT class.

Click here to view this artifact’s episode of “Stories from the Collection,” a monthly video series on the DEA Museum’s most exciting objects.