Practice with FBI Citizens Academy at shooting range

By Norris Burkes Feb 14 2025

Did You Miss National Backwards Day?

Apologies for this belated announcement.

But, Jan 31 was “National Backwards Day.”

No, it’s a real thing, chaplain-honest.

My wife, a retired schoolteacher chastised me for not reminding you sooner.

Every year her elementary schools would participate in National Backwards Day, an annual whimsical and fun-filled observance that encourages people to do things in reverse or unconventional ways.

But you don’t have to be a kid to do it. All ages are welcome to break routine and engage in activities with a unique twist.

Participants will wear their clothes backward, eat meals in reverse order, or simply do everyday tasks in unconventional ways.

Anyone can participate. Even our president.

Last month, with Backwards Day approaching, he pardoned the Jan 6th criminals and has now began a process to fire the law enforcement that imprisoned those hoodlums. 

Well-played, Sir. That’s pretty backward.

“Chaplain!” you say, “You’ve careened out of your lane. How can you talk politics in a religion column?”

Consider it a part of my 2025 New Year’s resolution that I made in December 2024. 

“I resolve that I will work harder this year to write with more authenticity. I won’t focus on the popular or how I might improve the ups and downs of my readership, but on writing authentically.”

This authentic column comes under the category of standing up for my friends.

I have several friends in the FBI and that friendship began with two different official visits.

The first came when a preschool director told the FBI that my newly adopted daughter bore a canny resemblance to a missing child on a milk carton photo. The milk carton thing was a 1990s public service to raise awareness for missing children.

That report triggered a visit to our Stockton home from an FBI agent seeking proof that we adopted our three-year-old daughter, Brittney. We gave him files and files of proof. No problem. 

But my new friend didn’t close the investigation until he interviewed social workers and neighbors. 

Overboard? Maybe. But that agent was looking out for my family and the family of that missing child. When someone does that, they become my friend.

Don’t mess with my friends.

On the second occasion, twenty years later, Agent Steve Dupre knocked on my door. He needed our Elk Grove house to surveil the house of a neighbor who’d used his ill-gotten robbery money to buy the house.

Steve became my friend.

In 2013, Steve invited me to make more FBI friends by joining the FBI Citizens Academy.

The class is invite-only.

For six weeks, we spent three hours every Wednesday at the Sacramento FBI office hearing the agents lecture about famous crimes, surveillance techniques, bomb making, and home terror organizations.

We also learned about the skin heads and the militia movements in this country. Pretty scary class, but I made lots of new friends.

One week, Steve announced that our class would visit a local gun range to shoot the guns FBI agents use.

I told Steve, “I don’t want to go.”

“Why is that?” he asked.

I told him about the gun trauma I experienced in the aftermath of a mass shooting at an elementary school in Stockton, Calif.

Steve listened carefully.

He promised me that it would be OK either way. “If you go, you don’t have to shoot.” he said. “But if you shoot, I’ll stand with you and talk you through it.”

I went and I did shoot. It was hard, but Steve stood shoulder-to-shoulder with me as a friend would do.

We finished the class with an optional field trip to the FBI academy in Quantico VA where we were welcomed by, then FBI director, James Comey.

Comey, a man of faith, used the FBI motto as an outline for his talk.

“Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity.”

During these backward days, there are forces seeking to locate and identify the agents who employed these principles in their Jan 6th investigations.

I pray their search is unsuccessful.

But in the meantime, I’ll let you know where this chaplain is located – He’s standing with his friends.

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Send email to [email protected] or voice message at (843) 608-9715.  All of my books can be found on Amazon, but for an autographed copy of any of my books, order from my website www.thechaplain.net or send a check for $20 per book to 10566 Combie Rd. Suite 6643 Auburn, CA 95602.