There are many who have felt and still feel the passion for the Civil Guard uniform.

But few can say that they first stood up to ETA and then fulfilled their dream of joining the Duke of Armada's family.

Fermín Garcés, who has left us today at the age of 90, was the first civilian to confront an ETA commando.

Three years ago he was like a kid with new shoes.

On the esplanade of the General Directorate of the Civil Guard, with his cane and his cap, he radiating a smile of serenity, tranquility, happiness.

He felt like the protagonist.

It was.

He was going to receive the Civil Guard merit cross with a red badge.

And he was with THE WORLD.

Because Fermín Garcés became the first example of citizen collaboration in the fight against ETA's terrorism.

"I did what I have to do.

I didn't even have to think about it », he pointed out then.

And that what he had to do was get in front of two guys from the gang who had just committed the first murder of a civil guard: before those who shot and killed agent José Antonio Pardines.

We are talking about the year 1968, June 7.

But Fermín Garcés remembered it quite accurately.

So much so that, when he sees the model that reproduces that first attack, in the Civil Guard museum, he is able to clarify: "That day I was wearing a plaid shirt and not like the one they have recreated for me," Garcés pointed out sympathetically.

In that conversation with EL MUNDO, Fermín recalled that on that day he was traveling from France with his truck to Spain.

He came across a roadblock in Villabona (Guipúzcoa): there was a civil guard there (son and grandson of civil guards) who was checking a vehicle in which two young people were travelling.

«Something strange saw.

The front and rear license plates did not match," Garcés said.

One of them shot the guard.

«I thought it had been a noise from the engine, that something had gone wrong.

For a while I'm going to imagine that they were killing the guard, until I saw him fall.

Then, already on the ground, they shot him again.

And at that moment is when the life of this Navarrese changed completely.

Because, without much thought, he did what instinct told him.

He went after the killers, who were already moving the car trying to get away.

“I grabbed one of them through the window.

But the other one pulled out a gun and threatened me."

At that moment, the ETA members came out "at full speed."

“I got into the first car that was in line at the checkpoint.

There were two other young men.

I told them to follow the killers.

Look, I didn't even realize it, and they could have been friends of those who had just murdered the guard.

We reached the point where Pardines' partner, Félix de Diego Martínez, was, and we told him what had happened.

And we followed the ETA car to Tolosa.

We saw how they got out of the vehicle and took another one at gunpoint in their flight.

We follow it.

His information about Txabi Etxebarrieta and Iñaki Sarasqueta was key to the immediate police action against the commando.

The first died a few hours later during a shooting confrontation with the Armed Institute, in Tolosa, in the place where Garcés had indicated.

Sarasqueta was arrested and sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment.

In 1977 he left prison for the Amnesty Law.

Pardines's partner was murdered that fateful day by ETA in Irun, 11 years later, when he was already retired.

After his performance, he was received by the Civil Guard chiefs.

At that moment, Fermín had decided to leave the truck.

And right there, in the General Directorate, when asked how they could reward him, his future was drawn.

"I told them that nothing was needed, that I was proud of what I had done, that I didn't do it to earn anything... But I also told them that I wanted to join the Civil Guard," he recalls with a smile.

He joined the Armed Institute, the Mobile Park, in Madrid, where he dedicated himself since then to the maintenance of the vehicles of the Armed Institute.

But the shadow of ETA persecuted him.

It was not a direct target but it was his turn, being in the General Directorate, to endure another attack, in 1988. The gang planted a car bomb.

He murdered a two-year-old boy and a TVE worker.

Fermín was also there.

"It's not fear.

Do not.

But yes fear.

Since Pardines, that action has always been in my head.

I had a hard time falling asleep peacefully.

He relived the murder.

Many times, when I was in the field, alone, I thought that anyone could come and...».

Fermín went to a tailor and had a uniform made for him, at 87 years of age, to receive that decoration - which was already awarded to him in his day - on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Civil Guard Information Service.

“I am very excited and very happy.

It changed my life, without a doubt.

But if I lived the same, I think I would react the same.

And I am very happy that my granddaughter Irene is about to enter this house, in the Civil Guard.

She fills me with pride that she follows in my footsteps».

Because Fermín Garcés has become the pennant, the emblem for agents in the fight against terrorism.

This service was dedicated to ending ETA.

He was the first citizen hero in the fight against ETA.

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