But you know, it was a rough time, and I admit I made some choices in that I am not proud of growing up in Harlem. I was involved in a gang, and at a certain point [my street activity] caused my parents to ship me away. I know you guys have heard [of these actions taken by parents], especially those raised in the South. Your family would send you to relatives in an attempt to get you on the straight and nar- row. My parents sent me away to Puerto Rico to be with family for a couple of months, but then they brought me back due to my brother suggesting that [my behavior was caused by] the friends I should not have been hanging out with in Harlem. My brother suggested that my parents move me to an all - boys High School in the Bronx, Dewitt Clinton High School, a famous High School in New York City back in the day. Being in Dewitt Clinton High School was an all - boys environment, so there was no need to flex because there were no young ladies around! [Laughs]
All: Laughs
SGIG Nicholas Padilla, Jr.: It changed my outlook on what I wanted to do. This was the same high school that my brother attended, Dewitt Clinton High School, and I played football and handball and was on the bowling team. I was also on the team for the city championships in athletics. At that point, I was on a different trajectory. This school also had a law enforcement program to recruit high school students into the New York City Police Department, their auxiliary program. Students would get extra credit for attending those courses, and when I initially gave it some thought, I thought it was not my goal to be a police officer. But I took the class and ended up enjoying it. I graduated and ended up at- tending the New York City Police Academy and taking the police exam. But right about the time I finished high school, New York City had a big budget cut, and they had a hir- ing freeze for New York City police [officers]. But during that time, I was very involved in playing handball, as I said before, on the state and national levels. During those competitions, I met some prom- inent individuals in the FBI and others in the private sector who recommended that I join the military and serve for a couple of years. [The said to me,] “ finish up your college degree, and you can come back and become a Bureau agent [FBI]. ” So, I went into the recruiting station wanting to join the Army; of course, my parents thought I was crazy. Partly due to my mother working at the Veterans
Administration as a dietician. She felt that [joining the U.S. Army] wasn't good for her son. But I joined, and they eventually agreed that this would be a good change for me. My goal was to join the Army and do my two or three years, and I was coming back home. I enlisted as a Military Police- man (MP) and went to MP school at Fort McClellan, Alabama, in July 1980. [During] my first assignment in Oklahoma [at Fort Sill, Oklahoma] as a military police- man, we did regular patrol duties since I was in a garrison Military Police assign-
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