SOG 2026 Expo Dates Scheduled

We are happy to announce the 2026 SOG Expo will be on April 8-9 with early setup on April 7th from 1200-1600 all times MST. The 2026 SOG Expo Registration is open. The payment tab is also open. For questions, please contact Steve Franzoni (915) 433-4090.

SOG 2025 EXPO Concludes

The U.S. Border Patrol Special Operations Group Morale, Welfare and Recreation Organization with Special Forces Chapter IX would like to thank those companies and representatives from all levels of government for participating in the 23rd SOG Expo. We believe it to be the best and biggest event that we have had, thanks to you in getting the word out. We hope everyone had a good time and it was worth your time and expense. We would also like to thank those companies who supported the Border Patrol Foundation and the Night at the Border Patrol Museum.

Below is a video provided by Unmanned Systems of America LLC of Range Day at the SOG 2025 Expo.

2025 SOG EXPO registration is now CLOSED

 2025 SOG EXPO Registration is now CLOSED.  If you want to discuss possible openings due to cancellations, please call Steve Franzoni at 915 433-4090.    

Border Patrol Foundation - Night at the Museum 2025

The Border Patrol Foundation is again hosting a Night at the Museum (the US Border Patrol Museum) in conjunction with the US Border Patrol Special Operations Group Morale, Welfare and Recreation Law Enforcement Equipment and Technology Expo.   

This is a great event, and both the Border Patrol Museum and Border Patrol Foundation (BPF) are two very worthy organizations to support.  A silent auction is held at the Museum. Proceeds from this event supports the BPF as well as the Border Patrol Museum which is operated solely on donated funds.  

Visit the BPF website for more information, or e-mail Erica Aguilar, the BPF Executive Director.       

2025 Expo Registration Open

Online Registration and Payment for the 2025 SOG Expo is open.  For any questions regarding the SOG Expo and Range Day please contact:

Steve Franzoni at stephen.franzoni@gmail.com or (915) 433-4090. 

One Table is $1,000.  To pay for one table, go to this payment site

Two Tables are $2,000. To pay for two tables, go to this payment site

  

For question relating to outside display areas, please contact Steve Franzoni at the above number.  

SOG remembers Chief Patrol Agent Carl L. McClafferty III

Chief Patrol Agent Carl L. McClafferty III, passed from this earth on 21 January 2020, at age 71. It was not the number of years he lived which are signficant, but how he lived them, the contributions he made and the legacy he left. A US Army Veteran of the Vietnam War, being awarded a purple heart and two Bronze Star Medals with "V" device for valor, Carl graduated US Border Patrol Academy Class 112 and entered on duty at Chula Vista California.

During his Border Patrol career, Carl McClafferty served as an Inspector in Canaan, Vermont; Supervisory Border Patrol Agent, Tucson, Arizona; Commander, Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC), El Paso, Texas; Assistant Chief Patrol Agent, Tucson, Arizona; Chief Patrol Agent, Detroit, Michigan; Deputy Chief Patrol Agent, Del Rio, Texas; Chief Patrol Agent, Air Operations, El Paso, Texas; Deputy Chief Patrol Agent, Tucson Sector, Arizona and when he reitred he was the Chief Patrol Agent, El Centro Sector, California.

While serving with BORTAC, he deployed on several international counter narcotics operations in South America such as Bolivia, Guatemala, and Panama. As the second serving BORTAC Commander he was instrumental in establishing BORTAC Headquarters on Biggs Army Airfield, El Paso, Texas which is now the Headquarters for the US Border Patrol Special Operations Group (SOG), the adjacent and higher headquarters for the Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC) and the Border Patrol Search, Truma and Rescue Team (BORSTAR). He also established the relationship with, and support from US Army Special Forces, which is now nearly 40 years old.

  After retirement, Chief McClafferty continued serving the Nation as an        instructor on State Department sponsored training missions virtually all over the world, training Host Nation Law Enforcement personnel. He was also an avid practitioner of martial arts and has been involved with the martial arts since 1967. He received a Menkyo Kaiden, full license, in Shin Shin Sekiguchi Ryu, a sword system that was adopted as the official family sword style of the Tokugawa Shoguns in feudal Japan. Chief McClafferty oversees the U.S. arm of Shin Shin Sekiguchi Ryu. He opened the Shin Shugo Taka Dojo in Yuma, Arizona which has hosted international sword competitions. He also holds a 5th degree black belt in Nakamura Ryu, a Japanese sword style, and a 5th degree black belt in Karate.



Chief McClafferty has two sons and a daughter.  Son's Carl and Daniel are highly respected members of the U.S. Border Patrol, as well as the elite US Border Patrol Search Trauma and Rescue Team (BORSTAR).  His daughter Colleen is an Attorney.

 

2024 SOG EXPO minus one Super Star

This year's SOG EXPO will be without one of the seven plankholders of this annual event. Jeffrey Marshall Wemmer, or just Jeff to his friends and that would be everyone who ever met him. Jeff, born May 20, 1963 passed away on August 6, 2023 in Odessa, Texas.

Jeff, owner and originator of Spec Opns Brand has been a friend and innovative maker and supplier of tactical gear, first with BORTAC in the early 2000's and then with SOG when the unit was created as an adjacent higher headquarters for BORTAC and BORSTAR. In 2002, during the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, BORTAC and associated Border Patrol augmentees found themselves tasked with perimeter security for remote events. Having to wear winter parkas, the existing duty gear was not immediatley accessible, so a call was made to Jeff to see what he could do. We asked him to make a chest placket that could be worn over heavy parkas that would have a radio pouch, handgun holster, badge holder and flashlight pouch for the issue Surefire flashlight. Jeff asked when we needed them and we told him 'yesterday', would be be technically impossible unless you were a time traveler. Jeff was certainly a force, but not a time traveler. In any event, four days later boxes arrived at Salt Lake City with the requested chest placket that he designed and had his team make virtually overnight.

One more Jeff Wemmer story. Jeff was one of the most passionate people anyone could meet. One of those passions was providing the best designed and made tactical gear - packs, slings, pouches and the like. When you first met Jeff, many were taken aback. But he immediately grew on you when you found out that he was simply a Great American. So around 2004 or so, the El Paso FBI Division SWAT team was traveling through Monihans, Texas and decided to stop and see Jeff with some questions on gear. Apparently, Jeff showed the FBI several long guns, sniper packs and ancillary gear, laying on the ground and demonstrating shooting positions and telling the FBI that they could use his 1,000 yard sniper range if they wanted. The SWAT Team Leader called me and asked me if I knew Jeff. I said, "I sure do know him". Then the TL asked me if they needed to open a file on Jeff. After I quit laughing, I told the FBI SWAT TL that 'no, what he was seeing in Jeff was not craziness, just passion combined with knowledge.'  If you knew Jeff, then you loved him.  If you never met him then you certainly missed out.  

Jeff is survived by his immediate family, wife Lauri Wemmer and children Marshall Wemmer, Andrew Madden and Ashley Archer.