After Roll Call

Florida Highway Patrol State Trooper Tom Verge has witnessed just about every way a person can get hurt. His memoir <i>After Roll Call</i> recalls the events that were never written in any official reports but instead recounted only to fellow officers.<p> Protests over the Vietnam War race riots and drug violence were the backdrop when on November 15 1967 Tom Verge became a Florida State Trooper. His memoir presents a series of stories that occurred during his many years stationed throughout Florida but especially in Brevard County home to NASA's Kennedy Space Center a central location for the space race of the late 1960s and 1970s.<p> Whether it was making a traffic stop delivering a celebrity to watch a rocket launch or helping tourists Verge always answered the call of duty. Florida played host to both the Democratic and Republication 1972 national presidential conventions and Verge was involved in several political events that included meeting sitting presidents presidential candidates governors and other public figures.<p> He along with countless other police officers were called on to make decisions that would change lives. These officers considered themselves neither heroes nor particularly violent men. They were just police officers doing their duty.