This month marks the 50th anniversary of the death of my brother, Max Oldham. He was a 22 year old police officer in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and was riding his police motorcycle for the beginning of his shift when a drunk driver crossed the centerline and struck his motorcycle head-on. Max died in the hospital several hours later. Eerily, the motorcycle on which he was riding was involved in another fatal crash 5 months earlier when Officer Richard Armijo, was killed while responding to a traffic accident.
Max's story can be seen at the Officer Down Memorial Page, www.odmp.org.
A cousin, John David Oldham, was a Trooper with the Texas Department of Public Safety when he was killed in July, 1974, also by a drunk driver, while working a crash in North Texas. A second Trooper, Harold Hambrick, witnessed John David's death and died at the scene of a heart attack.
With my own 30+ year career in public safety, I've seen plenty more tragedy as a result of drunk drivers.
This seemed a fitting place for a tribute to Max.
That's a fairly recent photo of me in the background.
In the In Memorium photo essay.
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