Getting shot led Broward Circuit Judge Michael Gates into law. It also led to a Purple Heart, a Navy Cross and meeting his wife.

The son of a ship captain, Gates was born in a port town in Michigan and grew up in a Wisconsin port at the other end of his father's route across Lake Michigan.

He dreamed of a life on the water and got an appointment to the Merchant Marine Academy right out of high school. They sent him away because of his eyesight. The Navy didn't. Vietnam was raging.