Bill Sykes was born on July 11, 1919, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He was attending Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania, when America entered World War II, and he left college and enlisted in the Aviation Cadet Program of the U.S. Army Air Forces on January 8, 1942. Sykes was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant and awarded his pilot wings at Cochran Field, Georgia, on October 8, 1942, and then served in the United States until joining the 376th Fighter Squadron of the 361st Fighter Group in England as a P-51 Mustang pilot in June 1944. Lt Sykes was credited with the destruction of 5 enemy aircraft in aerial combat plus 5 more destroyed on the ground while strafing enemy airfields between September and December 1944. He was shot down over Germany and taken as a Prisoner of War on December 24, 1944, and was held until his POW camp was liberated on March 29, 1945. Capt Sykes remained in the Air Force after the war, and was serving as an F-80 Shooting Star pilot with the 61st Fighter Interceptor Squadron of the 56th Fighter Interceptor Group at Selfridge AFB, Michigan, when he left active duty on February 7, 1950. Bill Sykes Flew West on January 18, 1987, and was buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Pleasantville, New Jersey.