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1st Lt Charles P. Sparks joined the Regular Army in Lafayette, Indiana, on 27 May 1942.

A graduate of Flora High School, where he was a star player on the Badgers' basketball team, he attended Purdue University School of Pharmacy three years before he enlisted in the Air Force. He received his cadet training at San Antonio, Waco, and Victoria, Texas, and received his wings at Foster Field in Victoria. He was sent overseas in February 1944, assigned to a dive- bomber.
F/O Jesse R. Harrell:
"After pulling up from my strafing run, I noticed the cylinder head temperature gauge was out. I called my flight leader, Lt Sparks. Lt Sparks said he would take me due west, that being the shortest distance over the bomb line. We had been flying between five to ten minutes from the Rhine River at 170 to 180 MPH. The overcast was getting lower as we went west. We had let down to approximately 6,000 feet when the ME-109s came out of the overcast on our tail. Lt Sparks broke sharply to the right, across, in front of me and down. This was the last time I saw his ship. An instant later, a 20 mm. exploded inside my cockpit. It penetrated the rear section and exploded on contact with the front, bullet-proof section. I was momentarily stunned, and the ship went into a dive. I bellied in near St. Quen. I received injuries to my right eye, right hand, neck and back.
He was first buried in the Temporary American Military Cemetery, Andilly, France.