William Gregory, "Greg" to all, was born into a sharecropper's life in the hills of north central Tennessee. From the back of a mule-drawn plow, Greg learned the value of resilience and the importance of living a determined life. Refusing to accept a life of continued poverty, Greg sought and found a way out—a work-study college program that made it possible to leave farming behind him forever.

While at college, Greg completed the Civilian Pilot Training Program and was subsequently accepted into the Army's pilot training program. Earning his wings in 1942, Greg became a P-38 combat pilot and served in North Africa during the summer of 1943—a critical time when the Luftwaffe was still a potent threat, and America had begun the march northward from the Mediterranean into Europe proper.

Following the war, Greg served with a B-29 unit, then transitioned to the new, red-hot B-47 strategic bomber. In his frequent deployments, he was always assigned the same target in the Soviet Union—Tblisi, Stalin's home town. While a B-47 pilot, Greg was selected to join America's first high-altitude program—the Black Knights. Flying RB-57D aircraft, Greg and his team flew peripheral "ferret" missions around the Soviet Union and its satellites, collecting critical order-of-battle data so desperately needed by the Air Force at that time. When that program neared its design end, and following the Gary Powers shoot-down over the Soviet Union, Greg was assigned to command of the CIA's U-2 unit at Edwards AFB. It was during that five-year command that Greg and his team provided critical overflight intelligence, including during the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Vietnam build-up. He found time to also become one of the first to fly U-2s off aircraft carriers in a demonstration project.

Following his U-2 command, Greg attended the National War College, was assigned to the reconnaissance office at the Pentagon, and then was named Vice-Commandant of the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT). Greg retired from the Air Force in 1972.

Chapter 1 Tennessee
Chapter 2 College Life
Chapter 3 AAC Flight Schools
Chapter 4 Combat Tour
Chapter 5 Coming Home
Chapter 6 Pinecastle and the B-47
Chapter 7 Project Black Knight
Chapter 8 The 4025th and Operation Border Town
Chapter 9 The U-2, the CIA, and Early U-2 Operations
Chapter 10 U-2 Shootdown
Chapter 11 Cuban Missile Crisis
Chapter 12 National War College, the Pentagon, and AFIT
Chapter 13 The Colonel is a Civilian

"This is certainly a publication meant for those who have an interest in aviation, the Cold War, and aerial surveillance. It is gratifying to finally have an opportunity to learn, know and understand much of what went on behind the scenes in defending this country during a critical period in its history."

"This book is a must read. It is a detailed account of the U-2 program and other Cold War operations as lived through by Col. William Gregory, one of the pilots who experienced it firsthand. A great addition to your library.”

“Growing up in the Antelope Valley as young children of the Lockheed U-2 drivers, we did not know what our fathers were doing other than they were pilots. This biography of William Gregory and the history of the world events surrounding his life give context to the stories the families gleaned decades after the events of the 1960s. Within these pages are contained the challenges, disappointments and victories these heroes endured while performing a difficult job. Yet, it was a job that they all embraced without fanfare or reward. Through Col. Gregory and the U-2 drivers, they achieved what they had instilled—they kept our country safe.”

“In Spying from the Sky, the reader gets a peek beneath the shroud of secrecy surrounding the CIA’s Area 51 in Nevada as it develops the U-2 spy plane, and its proposed replacement, the CIA’s A-12 Archangel Blackbird predecessor to the Air Force’s SR-71. All-in-all, by following the career of Col William Gregory, the author touches a vast spectrum of history, being poor, the struggle for an education, the advancement of aviation, secrecy, war, leadership, family, and success, to name a few.”