This compelling memoir provides unparalleled insight into the CIA's most extensive covert operation and the men who conducted it.
When the author was 15 years old he ran away from home, ending up in Havana, Cuba. His parents were not amused and not long after he returned he was enrolled in the Oak Ridge Military Academy for an attitude adjustment. There he learned discipline but he was still driven by a ramblin', rambunctious curiosity; summers he worked as a Myrtle Beach life guard. He went on to UNC/Chapel Hill, played lacrosse, flunked out, went with a couple of buddies down to Managua, Nicaragua but was chased out by what would become the Sandinistas. He flew to Florida, worked at a Miami hotel, returned to college for one more semester before dropping out to join the US Army.
LAST MAN OUT chronicles his Vietnam war experiences; Parker was among the first in as a 22 year old Second Lieutenant platoon leader in 1965 and he was the last to leave in 1975. In between he married, graduated UNC and joined the Central Intelligence Agency. His first CIA assignment was upcountry Laos where he led Hmong hillstribe guerrillas against two divisions of North Vietnamese main line soldiers. His detailed account of this top secret activity was published in hard back by the Naval Institute Press, titled CODENAME MULE - reprinted in paperback by St Martin's Press as COVERT OPS.
After para-military chores in Laos/Vietnam, Parker went on to serve undercover as a spy handler in the CIA's Directorate of Operations, retiring in 1992.
In the military he received the Bronze Star with "V" and the Purple Heart. In the CIA, he received two Certificates of Outstanding Service, a Certificate of Distinction and the Intelligence Medal.
He was called back to work for the CIA after 9/11, but has re-retired to Las Vegas, Nevada.
His next book is in the works.
