In less than a month, Sparkman is due to celebrate the first anniversary of his marriage to Jamie Lynn. He courted her from Kuwait, where he was serving as an air traffic controller, after her older brother, Jared, introduced them on Facebook. Despite the distance, their relationship quickly took off. Their first face-to-face date was in September 2012, when Sparkman came home on R & R. He picked her up at sunrise, took her to breakfast, and then to the church pastored by the Rev. Richard Hemphill, Trinity Fellowship in Marietta. Just five months later, after his deployment ended, he “surprised Jamie Lynn with a beautiful ring while sitting in his truck at sunrise one chilly Sunday,” their website says. They sealed their engagement by returning to the same breakfast spot and going to church at Trinity Fellowship. Family photo