Last Known Alive: The Search for Sergeant First Class Donald L. Sparks, WIA, MIA, POW

by Arlyn W Perkey

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.

166 pages, Paperback

Published June 30, 2019

Reviews

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

Somewhat less than what I was hoping to read. More of a life story about the author as a parallel to the life story of Donald Sparks. I’d wanted to read this book for a long time. Some of the editing is very poor. For example the non-word “witness’s” is used. The word is witnesses. Not really much about the search for a “last known alive,” POW from the war. Very deferential to the abandonment of Sparks and many other soldiers by their government. I wouldn’t recommend this book if you’re hoping for a deep dive into the mystery as it isn’t an investigative journalism type book. It’s more of a wandering retrospective with some references to documents. At best this book is underwhelming and at worst very disappointing.