For three years now, Vanessa Herron has been reaching out to spouses of Border Patrol agents faced with moving to a city they know little about.

Herron was once in their uneasy shoes.

She and her two children moved here in 1999 when her husband got hired as a Border Patrol agent with the Yuma sector.

Vanessa Herron sits in front of her computer, where she created a support Web site for spouses of U.S. Border Patrol Agents. Photo by Alfred J. Hernandez

"Heck, I didn't even know how to get to Wal-Mart," said Herron, who grew up in a small city in Oklahoma.

Thankfully, another agent's wife befriended Herron and she made the transition rather smoothly. To return the favor, the former Web site designer built a Web page called "Supporting the Border Patrol Spouses," found at www.bpspouses.com

The site features information about the towns all across the Mexico border with Border Patrol stations. Spouses planning a move can log onto the chat room and ask questions or discuss fears, problems or myths about living on the southern border, Herron said.

Newly hired agents arrive from all over the U.S. They don't always know their station assignment until late in the hiring stages. Many must move their families on short notice — a stressful task, Herron said.

Since its creation three years ago, hundreds of spouses have sought advice on the Web site, she said. Now, spouses living in the same cities are starting to connect, she said. Herron herself has met with newcomers and showed them around the city.

"It's just been growing and growing," Herron said.

Mostly, spouses want know about the schools and where to buy homes. Sometimes they vent about their spouse's hectic schedule at the training academy.

"It's a wonderful thing this knowledge is out there," said Angie Plumlee, the wife of a Yuma agent who moved here from Texas.

Plumlee gives new agents and their families a welcome packet that contains helpful phone numbers and "anything we can get to help their transition from point A to point B easier," she said.

This Web site is run independently of the Border Patrol.

Some agents have also built their own Web sites to discuss Border Patrol issues and stay in touch, said Michael McGlasson, spokesman for the Yuma sector.

Herron's and other Web sites are seen as positive, he said.

Herron said she simply saw a need.

"There was no place really for the spouses to go," she said. "We want to know about towns, we want to know about populations, we want to know about jobs."

"It gives them comfort," she said. "It's nice to be able to correspond with somebody that's already been there."