Barbara Birchim
I am the wife of Army Special Forces and Special Operations Captain James D. Birchim who has been listed as Missing In Action since November 15, 1968. I finished my nurses training when our two children were in school and helped start up two Home Health Agencies.
In 1989, I made my first trip to Vietnam and realised that there were still live Americans being held against their will in Southeast Asia. This led me back to that part of the world on numerous trips to search for information on our POW/MIAs. Dragging medical supplies to remote villages, networking with local medical people, talking with local officials and sometimes getting in to trouble became my mission. I made contacts and contacts found me from around the world, and the digging for the truth has never stopped.
I belong to the Special Forces Association and Special Operations Association plus the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia. I've done a great number of radio and TV interviews plus given talks on this issue to numerous groups around the United States. I continue to keep my nursing license current and have done volunteer medical work in over seven countries.
July 9, 2001, was proclaimed Barbara Birchim Day by the City Council of San Diego in recognition of my work on behalf of the POW/MIAs, my reforrestation project at the military cemetery in San Francisco and my support and work in the medical field in various countries.
Is Anybody Listening? A True Story About The POW/MIAs In The Vietnam War was my first book and was awarded the 2006 President's Award by the Military Writer's Society of America.
Sue Clark
Sue Clark has been a professional writer for over 50 years. She was a radio Continuity Director, a TV writer and director, owned two newspapers, been published in newspapers, magazines, journals and anthologies.
She taught writing classes for the Graduate School, Department of Agriculture in CA, NV and WA. In the 1980s, she was Director of University Relations, University of California San Francisco where she was responsible for publicity, public relations, all University printed materials and news releases for the campus.
She teaches poetry and advanced fiction writing, plus literature classes through the Sierra College Emeritus program, Rocklin, CA. She received the 2008 Gold Medallion Award from Sierra Dreams Press in Auburn, CA for "Is Anybody Listening."
She has owned the SJ Clark Literary Agency for 36 years, and is co-publisher of ShortReads Press..