Family knows DEA agent earned place on Wall of Honor
Don Ware could have gotten a disability pension after being shot twice by an M16 rifle. Bullets that entered and exited his body caused major damage, and no one would have thought less of the Las Vegas-based Drug Enforcement Administration agent if he said he had had enough.
Instead, after the 1975 shooting in Sonora, Mexico, Ware battled to regain his health and eventually went back to work until his mandatory retirement in 1995.
Before and after the shooting, Ware believed in what he was doing to fight the scourge of drugs. He never thought fighting drugs was a futile cause, his widow, Rita, said.
Don Ware was 64 when he died on the operating table on Oct. 12, 2004.
His death was blamed on medical malpractice from perforations of a vein during what should have been routine hip replacement surgery.
It has taken several years, but the Nevada branch of the Association of Former Federal Narcotics Agents convinced the DEA that even though he died as a result of surgery, the surgery was a direct result of his bullet wounds, so Ware's death resulted from injuries in the line of duty.
"He loved his work and putting bad guys in jail," said retired DEA agent Chuck Kenerson, who with Tony Ricevuto, president of the Nevada chapter of retired agents, worked for two years to convince DEA officials that Ware deserved to be honored.
On Friday, Ware's family will see his plaque added to the DEA's Wall of Honor in Washington, D.C., the 82nd person on the wall.
On Saturday, he will be enshrined on the National Law Enforcement Officers Wall of Honor, which lists about 19,000 names.
"He deserves it," Rita said. "Our grandchildren deserve it, and our daughters deserve it. My grandkids need to see he did a good thing and he was a good man."
The June 9, 1975, shooting changed Don Ware's life forever.
He didn't talk about it or complain, said Las Vegas attorney Richard Wright, who knew Ware when he was a federal prosecutor.
"He was an unlikely federal criminal agent because he seemed more like my neighborhood State Farm insurance agent," Wright recalled.
Ware's demeanor was unassuming rather than tough, and he was a kind man, the attorney said. The fact he didn't retire with a disability, Wright said, showed his dedication.
The circumstances of Ware's shooting are disturbing.
After Ware received a tip from a confidential informant about a heroin dealer in Mexico, the Las Vegas agent traveled to Arizona to link up with other DEA agents and Mexican authorities. He and DEA agent Roy Stevenson from the San Luis office went to make a buy.
Driving to the buy site, Ware and Stevenson were halted by Mexican mobsters and ordered out of the car. They seized Stevenson's gun, but didn't find the pistol in Ware's waistband.
Ware was beaten badly, and the two agents were ordered into the back of a pickup. Stevenson was certain they were destined for execution. He asked Ware for his gun, and, when the pickup stopped, he jumped out and shot the driver in the head.
In the gunfight that followed, Stevenson and Ware were both shot twice, but only Ware's wounds were life-threatening. The agents pretended to be dead, so the three kidnappers left them in the street. Ware might have bled to death except for a bit of luck: The drug dealers had abandoned Stevenson's car, so he could radio for help.
One other piece of luck: One suspect had walked up to Ware and put a gun to his head while he was pretending to be dead but didn't fire.
He lived, but the next phase of Don Ware's life was tough, as Saturday's column will explain. But Ware was tougher.
Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/morrison.