by Alex Kershaw
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE—PEACE BREAKS OUT
1 “A pretty girl is”: Fritz, Endkampf, p. 201.
2 “Thunderbird Paul Cundiff dated”: Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, p. 279.
3 “However, noncompliance was widespread”: Buechner, Sparks, p. 154.
4 “How do you know”: Hicks, The Last Fighting General, p. 190.
5 “It took three weeks”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
6 Sparks’s fellow Thunderbirds also: “Thunderbird Afloat,” 1, no. 5 (September 7, 1945).
7 “On board,” remembered one: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 178.
8 After 827 days overseas: Hugh Foster, “Summary of Combat Activities, 157th Infantry Regiment in WW11.”
9 The division’s artillery had: Buechner, Sparks, p. 203.
10 The Thunderbirds approached New York: “Thunderbird Afloat,” 1, no. 5 (September 7, 1945).
11 “It’s the most beautiful”: Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, p. 286.
12 To his right, across: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
13 “Come to El Paso”: Mary Sparks, interview with author.
14 She booked into a hotel: Ibid.
15 An estimated ten million: Clodfelter, Warfare and Armed Conflicts, pp. 584–91.
16 That night of V-J: Mary Sparks, interview with author.
17 It was the happiest: Ibid.
18 The thought of being: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
19 “Well, as soon as”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
20 Kirk recognized his father: Mary Sparks, interview with author.
21 “He didn’t take to”: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
22 Other than diving to: Ibid.
23 He would never forget: Rocky Mountain News, March 10, 2007.
24 Their first home as: Colorado Lawyer, 27, no. 10 (October 1998).
25 “There were still a”: University of Denver Water Law Review (Fall 1999).
26 Sparks took two months’ leave: Felix Sparks, Colorado National Guard interview.
27 Sparks told Turner’s parents: Rocky Mountain News, March 10, 2007.
28 In the rich farmland: Felix Sparks, Colorado National Guard interview.
29 “ ‘This man knows Daddy’ ”: Rocky Mountain News, March 10, 2007.
30 He then passed his: “Law school was always easy for me,” he later said. Source: University of Denver Water Law Review (Fall 1999).
31 In 1948, Sparks “campaigned”: Kirk Sparks, interview with author.
32 In Johnson’s jaundiced eyes: www.colorado.gov./dpa/doit/archives
33 Sparks added that while: Undated press clipping, Felix Sparks scrapbook, courtesy of Blair Lee Sparks.
34 “They’re Democratic … you’ll need”: Colorado Lawyer, 27, no. 10 (October 1998).
35 Far too blunt and: Kirk Sparks, interview with author.
36 He served just two: Denver Post, September 28, 2007.
37 Sparks’s colleagues savored: Rocky Mountain News, September 26, 2007.
38 He always fought: Blair Lee Sparks, interview with author.
39 “Colorado can never repay”: Denver Post, September 28, 2007.
40 Now Sparks was no: Vincent Stigliani, interview with author.
41 Sparks would boom out: Jack Hallowell, personal notes on Sparks, provided to the author.
42 “I don’t know what”: Buechner, Sparks, p. xxxvi.
43 “He didn’t hesitate to”: Ainse Speairs, interview with author.
44 Speairs had gone on: Ibid.
45 Among those who attended: Joe Medina, interview with Nate Matlock, Regis University.
46 Medina had retreated into: Ibid.
47 “No, I don’t remember”: Ibid.
48 “She had a little”: Rex Raney, interview with author.
49 “It’s Vinnie!” cried Sparks: Vincent Stigliani, interview with author.
50 No action had been: Hugh Foster, e-mail to author, November 23, 2011.
51 At a reunion in: Boston Globe, July 2, 2001.
52 Brazenly false accounts of: Kirk Sparks, interview with author.
53 At a reunion shortly: Theresa Lynn Ast, “Confronting the Holocaust: American Soldiers Who Liberated the Concentration Camps,” Ph.D. thesis, Emory University Library, E11.5.A87 2000. Also Mike Gonzales, interview with author.
54 The number was: Howard Buechner I.G. Report, National Archives. The report stated that Buechner “violated his duty both as a physician and a soldier by ignoring the possibility of saving the wounded, but still living prisoners who had been shot.” Source: Summary of IG Report, p. 7.
55 A former good friend: Buechner, Dachau, p. 99.
56 The report concluded that: Whitaker IG Report, National Archives.
57 “It didn’t look good”: Shoah Foundation, interview with Felix Sparks.
58 In early 1994, Israel: Robert Goebel to David Israel, February 8, 1994.
59 “Look, if I recover”: David Israel, interview with author.
60 Israel knew from others: Henry Gerzen to David Israel, March 14, 1994.
61 The four clearly showed: Israel, The Day the Thunderbird Cried, p. 177.
62 According to Israel, Sparks: David Israel, interview with author.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO—THE LAST BATTLE
1 “The content of your”: Grossman, On Killing, p. 364.
2 The fifteen-year-old pulled out: Denver Post, January 12, 1994.
3 Indeed, Lee Pumroy’s killing: Blair Lee Sparks, interview with author.
4 He was particularly close to: Kirk Sparks, interview with author.
5 Sparks had once scolded: Ibid.
6 Days later, at his: Sparks, Déjà Vu, p. 178.
7 “They were like: ‘Who’s’ ”: Blair Lee Sparks, interview with author.
8 “It will be my”: Felix Sparks to Jack Hallowell, from Jack Hallowell’s private correspondence. Quoted courtesy of Jack Hallowell.
9 At the ensuing trial: Denver Post, January 12, 1994.
10 “I’m not the type”: Ibid.
11 “I’ll put in 50,000”: Chicago Sun-Times, December 12, 2003.
12 I told him he: Rocky Mountain News, September 14, 1993.
13 “I don’t have a low”: Ibid.
14 Among his backers were: Chicago Sun Times, December 12, 1993.
15 “Just within the past few”: Felix Sparks, 157th Infantry Association newsletter, June 30, 1993.
16 Also he tried to: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
17 After reestablishing the Colorado: Colorado Lawyer 27, no. 10 (October 1998).
18 Eventually, the governor of: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
19 Sparks believed that: Shoah Foundation, interview with Felix Sparks.
20 He had not seen: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
21 Among those who attended: Chicago Sun-Times, December 12, 1993.
22 The “goddamn NRA”: Ibid.
23 But Sparks’s proposed law: Ibid.
24 “They didn’t know what”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
25 “Just call me Felix”: Rocky Mountain News, September 14, 1993.
26 “This business of letting”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
27 In the nineties, Sparks: Blair Lee Sparks, interview with author.
28 “Tell that to my”: Felix Sparks, Holocaust Museum Speech, May 8, 1995.
29 “He has advanced America”: Rocky Mountain News, undated clipping, Jack Hallowell’s personal files.
30 A housing association deemed: Richmond Times-Dispatch, December 2, 2009.
31 “or a place I’ve”: Fox News, December 3, 2009, foxnews.com/us/2009/12/03/.
32 “He just goes into”: Rocky Mountain News, undated clipping, Jack Hallowell’s personal files.
33 “If you’re going to”: Times-Call, Longmont, Colorado, August 3, 2001.
34 “I don’t need any”: Rocky Mountain News, March 10, 20
07.
35 His most prized memento: www.c-spanvideo.org, U.S. representative, Colorado, Edwin Perlmutter speech before Congress, October 17, 2007.
36 “I love you”: Mary Sparks, interview with author.
37 “He just cared about”: Rocky Mountain News, October 3, 2007.
38 According to tradition: Ibid.
39 “[It] doesn’t bring my”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
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