If you knew or served with this Sailor and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
Contact Info
Home Town Hazard, Perry County KY
Last Address Born and died, Hazard KY.
Date of Passing Feb 07, 2007
Location of Interment Combs Family Cemetery - Hazard, Kentucky
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
AR 2/c CLAUDE VERNON COOPER aviation radioman and aerial gunner U. S. NAVY AIR CORPS, WORLD WAR II
Hometown: HAZARD, Perry County, Kentucky, USA.
Date of Birth: 7 November 1923.
Entered Service From: Kentucky
Enlistment Date: January 1943.
Discharge Date: January 1946.
Branch of Service: U. S. Navy Air Corps.
Combat Organization: Gunner and Radioman. CASU 3 (Combat Aircraft Service Unit)
Boot Camp: Trained at Great Lakes Naval Training Station, Company 145, Navy Chief Carruthers. In his company were Perry County men known to him: Jack Brashear of Hazard, Ivon Brown "Cotton" Brashear of Viper and Carlo (Mac) Whitaker of Mason's Creek.
Next Duty, Tennessee: Cotton Brashear and Cooper went to Millington Naval Air Technical Training Center. Became Avaition Radiomen and Aerial Gunners. Graduated, Honor Man of the Class.
Next Duty, Florida: Lake City Naval Air Station.
Next Duty, South Carolina: Beaufort Naval Air Station.
Next Duty, Florida: Cecil Field Training Base, where Chief Keith Hall was Chief Gunner Instructor, and his brother, Bob Hall was a neighbor of mine and lived on Poplar Street in Hazard.
Next Duty, California: Traveled by train to San Francisco.
Next at Treasure Island Naval Base.
Next Duty, U. S. S. WEST POINT: sailed to Noumea, New Caldeonia, Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides Islands.
More training at Lugan Field.
South Pacific Offensive: Henderson Field. Guadalcanal. Vella Lavella as a replacement in CASU "Black Sheep" Squadron, Commanded by Gregory "Pappy" Boyington. Cooper's friend, Bill Farler of Bulan, Kentucky was there.
3 January 1944: Assisted in pre-flight of Major Boyington's plane. His plane was shot down that day, and he became a Prisoner of War. The Black Sheep were disbanded and we were sent back to Guadalcanal, later to Samar, Philippine Island, on to Clark Air Base.
"I was standing before the gates of Santo Tomas University, when the gates were opened and the American prisoners were taken out in open truck. Most of them looked like skeletons", stated Vernon Cooper. Return Home On Leave: Landed at Alameda Naval Air Station, San Francisco, California. On leave Cooper ran into Paul Brown of Lothair, Kentucky, who was a Navy Hospital Corpsman stationed at Nob Hill Naval Hospital.
Next was a train ride to Lexington, Kentucky, followed by a Greyhound Bus to Hazard.
Next Duty, California: Los Alamitos Naval Air Station. Chief Paul A. Brinegar of the Communication Office, sent me to Farragut, Idaho for officers school. He became Wishbone, the cook on the TV series, Rawhide.
Cemetery: David Young Combs Cemetery, Hazard, Perry County, Kentucky.
Other Comments:
Dr. C. V. Cooper, Jr., prominent Hazard business man passed peacefully at the ARH Hazard, Ky., February 7, 2007 with his family members and friends by his side. He was 83 years young. A graduate of Hazard High School in 1941. Mr. Cooper has degree's from the University of Kentucky and Auburn University. Honorary doctrine degree's from Eastern Kentucky University and Cumberland College. He served his country proudly during WWll in the United State Navy as an aviation radioman and aerial gunner in the Theatre of operations-Solomon and Philippine Islands. His rank upon discharge was AR/2C (Aviation Radioman second class).
World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Northern Solomon Islands Campaign (1943-44)
From Month/Year
February / 1943
To Month/Year
November / 1944
Description The Solomon Islands campaign was a major campaign of the Pacific War of World War II. The campaign began with Japanese landings and occupation of several areas in the British Solomon Islands and Bougainville, in the Territory of New Guinea, during the first six months of 1942. The Japanese occupied these locations and began the construction of several naval and air bases with the goals of protecting the flank of the Japanese offensive in New Guinea, establishing a security barrier for the major Japanese base at Rabaul on New Britain, and providing bases for interdicting supply lines between the Allied powers of the United States and Australia and New Zealand.
The Allies, in order to defend their communication and supply lines in the South Pacific, supported a counteroffensive in New Guinea, isolated the Japanese base at Rabaul, and counterattacked the Japanese in the Solomons with landings on Guadalcanal (see Guadalcanal Campaign) and small neighboring islands on 7 August 1942. These landings initiated a series of combined-arms battles between the two adversaries, beginning with the Guadalcanal landing and continuing with several battles in the central and northern Solomons, on and around New Georgia Island, and Bougainville Island.
In a campaign of attrition fought on land, on sea, and in the air, the Allies wore the Japanese down, inflicting irreplaceable losses on Japanese military assets. The Allies retook some of the Solomon Islands (although resistance continued until the end of the war), and they also isolated and neutralized some Japanese positions, which were then bypassed. The Solomon Islands campaign then converged with the New Guinea campaign.