White Sands, New Mexico
During his early years at the JPL, Parks started out as an engineer in the Guidance and Control Section from 1947 to 1950 where he worked with Wernher von Braun in White Sands, New Mexico to develop the guidance systems for the Army's MGM-5 Corporal and MGM-29 Sergeant guided missiles. He then became Section Chief, and from 1956 to 1957 was Division Chief of Research and Development. He was Project Director for the Sergeant missile program from 1957 until June 1960 when the work at JPL was turning from missiles to spacecraft.[1]