9781422277126

“That made a big impression on him,” Billy’s son Allen Reid Sparks would later tell a writer for the US Air Force. “That was a time when we had a lot of pride in our nation, and I believe that what happened made him determined to serve his country from an early age.” Cold War Warrior As Billy grew up, he became fascinated with military history. He devoured books on the US Civil War (1861–1865) and other conflicts. After graduating from Indiana University in 1957, Sparks became a commissioned officer in the Air Force and began training as a fighter pilot. When he finally got his wings, Sparks spent four years as a pilot at Spang- dahlem Air Base in West Germany. It was the height of the Cold War, an ideological battle between the communist world, led by the Soviet Union, and the Western democracies, led by the United States. At that time, the United States found itself becoming more involved in Vietnam, a former French colony that turned communist in 1954. At that time, international officials divided Vietnam to block a total takeover by the com- munists. The split allowed a communist government to rule the North, while a non-communist government held power in the South. Unwilling to accept the split, the communists began a campaign to con- quer South Vietnam and turn Vietnam into one communist state. The war was fully underway when Sparks arrived in 1967. He had spent four years learning to fly the Thunderchief, eventually graduating in 1966 as a Top Gun pilot.

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