The call of loyalty and the call of friendship compelled author Arlyn Perkey to investigate the fate of Donald L. Sparks–a Vietnam veteran with the high priority status of Missing in Action-Prisoner of War-Last Known Alive. Intertwining his own story with that of his friend Don, Perkey offers a portrait of two naive Iowa farm boys, drafted, sent to Vietnam, and wounded when their squads were ambushed. One returned to the life he had imagined. The other suffered a fate obscured by decades of misinformation, withheld information, and failed communication fostered by bureaucratic protocols and unwarranted paranoia. Last Know Alive pieces together the story of Donald L. Sparks’ struggle to stay alive and return to his beloved Iowa home.
Abandoned in Place
“Abandoned in Place” provides a snapshot of the Vietnam POW/MIA issue. From the signing of the Paris Peace Accords, in January 1973, ending American involvement in the war in Southeast Asia to the “dysfunctional” POW/MIA accounting effort of 2014. With the period 1980 -1981 a clear line in the sand.
