Lives on the line

Everyone from the United States who goes to Iraq to fight is a volunteer. Two Cape Girardeans found other ways to serve their country in the war-torn country.

Last year, Bill Adams, retired from a career in law enforcement that included the Missouri State Highway Patrol and a stint as Poplar Bluff's police chief, spent six months in Baghdad teaching Iraqi police officers constitutional law and ethics. He taught them about the history of the U.S. civil rights movement to demonstrate the necessity to uphold equal rights for all.

This year, assistant federal prosecutor Larry Ferrell went to Baghdad for six months to assist Iraqi prosecutors trying Saddam Hussein and former Baathist leaders for crimes against humanity. In one case, the accused was a former chief judge of the Revolutionary Command Council Court who had sentenced 148 people from a single village to hang.

Adams and Ferrell put their lives on the line for a cause they believe in as well.