Neil Roley Sparks

Neil Roley Sparks was born in Berkeley, California, 23 March 1935. His family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1939, where he graduated from Will Rogers High School in 1954. He attended Oklahoma A&M University for three years while participating in Air Force ROTC. He left school in 1957, joined the Navy, attended the Naval Aviation Cadet program in Pensacola, earning his Naval Aviator Wings in 1959. Sparks left the Navy to resume his college education. He rejoined Navy active duty in 1964.

In 1966 Sparks was assigned to Naval Auxiliary Air Station Ream Field near San Diego, followed by his third and fourth tours of duty in South Vietnam. After graduating from the Naval Postgraduate School with a BS in Engineering Sciences, Sparks completed his fifth tour of Vietnam duty.

Sparks was awarded the Navy Cross, and the citation reads in part: “For extraordinary heroism in aerial flight on 17 July 1967, Lieutenant Sparks courageously penetrated the coastal defenses of North Vietnam to rescue a downed Naval aviator in a heavily defended area thirty miles south of Hanoi. Although the [SH-3A Sea King] helicopter was hit by intense and accurate enemy fire, disabling the radios, automatic stabilization equipment, and airspeed indicator, he skillfully hovered for twenty minutes until the survivor was safely hoisted aboard. Two and one-half hours after penetrating the coastal defense over North Vietnam and having traveled two hundred miles over heavily fortified hostile territory, he brought his crew and the downed aviator to safety.”

CDR Sparks subsequently served at the Naval Headquarters in London; Mayport Naval Air Station, Florida; the USS Inchon; the Pentagon; the Marine Corps Station at Quantico, Virginia; and retired in 1986. His many awards and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal with “V” for valor and the Meritorious Service Medal. He was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery in 2022.