ou either get up and run or you lay down and die,” said 55-year-old Horse Cave senior John Coats, “and I’m not lyin’ down.” Coats has survived shrapnel wounds from a tour- and-a-half in Vietnam with the Army and several bouts with cancer: three with skin cancer, two with prostate cancer, two with paranasal sinus cancer and one tumor in his lower back.

“I’m not supposed to be walking,” Coats said, “But does it look like it bothers me?”

Coats also has an adopted daughter, Anna Maria, who graduated from Western in 2003. Coats raised Anna Maria by himself since she was 8 years old.

After leaving the Army, Coats worked as a federal agent for the U.S. Justice Department. He retired when he was first diagnosed with cancer in 1997.

Coats plans on graduating this spring with a bachelor’s degree in history. He already has two associate degrees from Los Angeles Community College, one in administrative justice and the other in business. Coats also has a bachelor’s degree from Jacksonville State University in accounting. “I just keep going to school,” Coats said. “I figure you’re as young as you feel.”

Reach Evan Sisley photo@chherald.com.