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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/Southern Philippines Campaign (1945)
From Month/Year
February / 1945
To Month/Year
July / 1945
Description On 10 March 1945, the U.S. Eighth Army—under Lt. Gen. Robert L. Eichelberger—was formally ordered by Gen. Douglas MacArthur to clear the rest of Mindanao, with the start of Operation VICTOR V, with expectations that the campaign would take four months. Eichelberger had misgivings about the projected timetable for the operation, but nonetheless, his Eighth Army staffers came up with a more effective plan.
Instead of the expected headlong frontal assault on the Japanese defenses, the plan called for securing a beachhead at Illana Bay in the undefended west, then a drive eastward more than a 100 mi (160 km) through jungle and mountains to strike from the rear. The objective, which called for achieving surprise and pressing forward quickly and aggressively by the invading forces, deemed Eichelberger, could unhinge the Japanese both physically and psychologically. The key to the operation's success involved the beachhead performance of the landing force and the ability of the participating units to maintain the momentum of their attack, preempting Japanese reactions, and hopefully before the rainy season started which would complicate movement in the island.
Ground operations were assigned to X Corps under Maj. Gen. Franklin C. Sibert, with Maj. Gen. Roscoe B. Woodruff's 24th Infantry Division and Maj. Gen. Clarence A. Martin's 31st Infantry Division as principal combat units. Amphibious Task Group 78.2 (TG 78.2)—under Rear Adm. Albert G. Noble—was tasked to carry the 24th Division and X Corps headquarters to the assault beaches near Malabang by 17 April to secure a forward airfield. Five days later, the 31st Division was expected to be in Parang, 20 mi (32 km) south, located near Highway 1, the route to Davao.
3.png?ixlib=java-2.3.0&w=100&s=fcb7fe5cf5605e9019744f1b9bcc573e "Navy Aerial Gunner (WWII)")
.png?ixlib=java-2.3.0&w=100&s=c49280a91b79826dbff47dc198f1bbf0 "Honorable Discharge Emblem (WWII)")
