Commentary

This is homage to an Army NCO (or noncom as they were called back then). Sergeant 1st Class Lyvon Edgar (a retired Korean War veteran) was the coach of my high school junior ROTC drill team. During my senior year we went undefeated in six competitions, culminating with the Southeast Region Championship at Fort Benning, Ga. We reached this level of excellence because of his daily inspiration.

National Nurses Week recognizes the impact nurses and medical technicians make to the lives and health of their patients. It is May 6 to 12 each year as a commemoration to Florence Nightingale, whose birthday is May 12. She was the founder of professional nursing and it was her performance as a nurse 150 years ago during the Crimean War that forever altered professional nursing. The changes she implemented in the care of the wounded in the spring of 1854 reduced the mortality rate from 42 to 2 percent. That pattern of excellent care continues today in military healthcare.

It was Saturday morning, May 5, 1995, when the police told me my brother was dead. They told me over the telephone and were very cavalier about it. But I understand why they were so callous. My brother had died of a heroin overdose, and they probably figured that I was another junkie too.