1979 was a significantly transitional year for me. I had been kicked out of the Army because the Commandant of the Airborne School refused to allow me on his installation with beard and turban, so I was given an Honorable Discharge at the Convenience of the Army. I had pursued Law Enforcement but met the same obstacles. However, a friend had been made Chief of a small police department for a Native American Reservation, and he brought me on and in that way I became the first full sardar to be sworn in as a police officer in the United States. I worked with the Training Officer for about 18 months, but became the Training Director for the department, teaching defensive tactics, fitness, marksmanship, judgement, etc.
In August of 1979 my academy slot came up and I went to the Academy graduating Valedictorian of my class and of the New Mexico Peace Officer School which followed the Academy. I also received a commendation for teaching self-defense and high-risk combat tactics. I was excited about my future. Then, I got a message that my friend the Chief had been fired, a new chief had been appointed, and he wanted to see me.
The meeting did not go well, and I ended up leaving my badge on his desk. I was devastated. After working so hard, and excelling in every way, I had been kicked out of the Army and dismissed by a tiny little police department, after I had proved myself. I whined to the Siri Singh Sahib and what he told me changed my life. He said, “Why do you want to say ‘yes sir’ the rest of your life? Start a company and we’ll hire the police and military, and they will all say ‘Yes Sir’ to you.”
Shortly after that I received a call from St. John’s College in Santa Fe asking if I could help them with their security problems. I went to meet with them, and they hired me to be their Chief of Security. Yet the words of the Siri Singh Sahib rang loudly in my head.
I loved working at St John’s and was well received there. Yet, I knew I had to take things further to fulfill my own destiny. I pulled some guys in the ashram together and we began to build a model for a security business. In January of 1980 we officially incorporated as Akal Security, Inc. Shortly after that we got our first contract patrolling a HUD housing project on the same Reservation where I had been a police officer. And we grew from there. Our earliest contracts were in the Espanola, Santa Fe, Albuquerque region.
In those early days, our work consisted primarily of bars and discos, construction sites, and patrols. Patrol was when we would drive to a client’s location to confirm it was secure after hours. Multiple clients constituted a patrol and normally on an incident free night, a patrol officer could check a client’s location 3-5 times a night. However, most nights something came up. Given the nature of the work we were doing, we had to make order out of chaos, especially at bars. Bar fights were the norm and for many of our early personnel it was their first time in a bar. We developed a reputation for being very professional and exceedingly well-trained.
Around 1983 we began to bid on government contracts, which propelled Akal Security toward its most successful period. The Federal government had a program for small businesses where certain contracts were set aside for small businesses, and at that time Akal Security was still a small company. We were successful with the SBA “set asides” and Akal Security not only grew exponentially, but we established a reputation for professionalism and quality of service that had never been seen, and that gave Akal Security an impeccable reputation.
In a few years, we were so successful that we had outgrown being qualified for the set aside contracts and we had to make significant adjustments to move to the next level. Where the set aside contracts simply required a bid, these higher value contracts required a written proposal and learning as we went. Our proposal writing team became the best in the business. Our proposals were always received high scores.
As our government work expanded, it was necessary to structure the company by division and thus the “National Division” was born, which managed our private sector contracts and a few local or state government contracts; the Military Division which oversaw the military contracts we had for US Army and Air Force installations; the Marshal’s Service Division which administered our contracts with the US Marshall’s Service, to provide security for the judiciary and judicial family in the federal courthouses; and the Government Division that administered our various other federal, state and municipal contracts. At our peak, we had about 18,000 employees in all 50 states and 3 foreign countries.
One of our areas of expertise was event security. We provided security for big concerts, athletic events, and other big, complex events, like the New Mexico State Fair. We became one of the few companies that was trusted to provide security at some of the high-risk airports, referred to as Cat X. We provided security at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport, the Honolulu airport, the El Paso, Texas airport; the Albuquerque International Sunport, and the Phoenix Sky Harbor airport.
Akal Security also acquired Coastal International Security, which was based in South Carolina, and brought us even greater success with our federal reputation. What a joy it was! And the Siri Singh Sahib was right, for they all said, “Yes Sir”.
Here’s another article about Gurutej Singh and Akal Security, shared by “The Global Sikh Trail: Stories of Eminent Sikhs”
Here is a summary of the history of Akal Security as shared in 2012.
Here’s a video of Gurutej Singh sharing the story of how Akal Security came to be:
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