. As with any profession, it is very hard to disassociate distractions from your main goal. Police cannot help but feel their heart strings being pulled when they are called to a rape, or the Fireman not being able to save someone inside a burning building. In Death in 10,000 Fragments, Dr. Maples describes his frustrations with one particular case, the Meek-Jennings case. I believe that Dr. Maples put this part in to show his great accomplishment, and what a pain it was, that took over a year to solve. It was his curiosity and his doubtfulness of the suicide note that led him to practice his extensive studies to good use and determine the proper identifications of the bodies.The question of American soldiers missing in action in Vietnam is an open, bleeding wound in American politics even today (187). In Lost Legions, Dr. Maples takes great pride in letting us know that he helps out extensively to help identify fallen Vietnam veterans at CILHI in Hawaii. I believe that he takes great pride in helping out our country this way because it is a change of pace from the murderous world that he constantly deals with. His pride is reflected in the fact that he did not charge a family to help identify a lost serviceman. He also helps illustrates how a dentist and an anthropologist must work together in the extensive identification process.The next few chapters offer a change of pace from the norm. I wish that history classes taken at school were as interesting as these. We first get a brief and exciting history lesson on Francisco Pizarro, how he lived and died by the sword. It was very interesting to find out that for so many years, people have been worshiping and kneeling before an impostor, until Dr. Maples helped to identify the true Francisco Pizarro by establishing the wounds on the skeleton. Former President Zachary Taylor was thought to have been assassinated by means of arsenic poisoning. Once again, Dr. Maples shows his p...
