Burying my Uncle Dick:

[Cooperhawk]

Tomorrow morning I and most of my extended family will attend a Military Funeral at Fort Snellng in St. Paul right next to the airport. We are laying to rest my Uncle Richard Cooper, the last of a long line of brothers and brothers in law. I expect there will be a large crowd.

Dick was a B29 Navigator in the squadron that dropped the A-Bomb, although he was not allowed to deploy to Tinian with the rest of the outfit. Why not? Well, it was because he already had five brothers and four brothers in law in war zones. The Sullivan Law prevented him from deploying. It hurt him until his death last week that he was the only brother not involved in the war up front.

Preceding him in death:
Donald, 3rd Army
Harold, 3rd Army
Robert, 3rd Army
Kenneth, Italy
William, USMC, Iwo Jima

Brothers in law:
Eldon, 101st Airborne, Pathfinders
Emil, US Navy
Robert, US Navy
Earl, US Navy

When I was about ten Uncle Dick organized a family fishing trip for the men and boys of the family. If you were out of diapers you could go, and you had an entire family of men looking out for you. It was great.
The brothers all loved to play cards and shoot dice and would sometimes play all night shouting and laughing, only to take us out fishing in the morning. I grew up admiring those men.

Uncle Dick did distinguish himself in life however. He went to work for the airlines and ended up in charge of one till he retired. He attended every fishing trip, there were 63 of them, and in fact was at the last one in May of this year.

I sometimes think that they are all gathered up there in heaven playing poker and hollering and laughing at each other waiting for the rest of us to join them. I'm sure they have a place at the table for Uncle Dick.

So it is with some affection and pride that we will lay to rest Captain Richard Cooper. May he rest in peace and join that big poker game in the sky.

 

[JPGLSG]

Coop...we'll be there in spirit with you.

 

[graygun]

Thanks for sharing and sorry for your loss. I recall the drill sergeants at Ft Bragg had 3rd Army patches on their left shoulders. This was early '69 and they were not WW2 but Vietnam vets.

That's a funeral I'd like to attend. In the 60s we had some summer parties at an uncle's place. He was a WW2 vet...USAAF aircraft mechanic in the Aleutians.

 

[stevemb]

May GOD speed, to Uncle Dick.

 

[Poco Oso]

R.I.P. Capt. Cooper. Job well done. Wonderful story Coop.

 

[gramps]

Finally at peace. Well done Capt Cooper and clan!
gramps

 

[Rick Courtright]

Hi,

Uncle Dick, I did not know you. Yet somehow today it seems I do... thank you and your family for a tradition of service, and may you all laugh around that table forever now. Rest in peace, Sir!

Rick C

 

[Colonialgirl]

I bet he will get a fine reception when he arrives in heaven.

 

[contender]

An excellent eulogy!

 

[Coop]

Farewell to a namesake. RIP Richard

 

[SATCOM]

Cooperhawk,

Nice family and nice story.

Your grandmother had 10 children with all the boys serving in the military and all the girls marrying men that served in the military?

SATCOM

 

[WendyZXZ]

Excellent post and bit of history of the family.

 

[RugerHound]

Thank you for sharing the life & times of a very special patriot! May he Rest In Peace.

 

[Viking Queen]

God Bless, rest in peace. A bit of my heart will be with you all as you lay him to rest.

My Dear Father, also a WWII veteran, is buried at Ft. Snelling National Cemetery, in a lovely setting on a hill.

My thoughts and prayers are with you all.

Viking Queen

 

[pawncop]

Peace be upon your entire family. I also imagine they will pull up a cloud for him and the stories will commence.

I also second the thought that we will be with you even from a great distance.

 

[Cooperhawk]

Cooperhawk,
Your grandmother had 10 children with all the boys serving in the military and all the girls marrying men that served in the military?
SATCOM

I did report the numbers a little sketchy. She had 15 children. 9 boys, 6 girls. One son died as an infant. One son tried to enlist and was turned down as he was forty. One son was in High School but served in Korea. All the girls but one married men who served. The one was the oldest daughter and her husband was also too old to enlist.

We buried Uncle Dick yesterday at Fort Snelling. It was a Military Funeral courtesy of the Fort Snelling Honor Guard and was done extremely well. A retired Chaplain did the service while the Honor Guard stood at Parade Rest. Then they came to attention and the Commander invited all veterans in the family to honor Uncle Dick by saluting the flag during taps. I had never seen this before and was impressed.

Afterward we all met where they had lived in the Community Center, and I was surprised at the several hundred folks who attended. Another service was held along with several eulogies by his Grandchildren.

Fort Snelling is the third busiest Military Cemetary in the nation. At todays rate we are burying 1200 vets a day with the last of WWII vets passing on and now the Korean and VN vets starting to pass on in larger numbers.

The Fort Snelling Honor Guard is quite well know around here. They have a Cadre of several score of volunteers who's average age is 71. They perform rain, shine, snow, sleet, ect. They handle rifles with no gloves in Winter conditions. They are all business!

There were also two active duty personal that did the flag ceremony.

I am thankful for them all. It was professionaly done.

After the ceremony at Fort Snelling we had lunch at the Officers Club where I am a member and was able to arrange tables for our group. In the banquet room there was a Police Convention and we all walked in between a cordon of blue suits on both sides of the entrance. Well, at least none of my relatives was on any wanted list.

 

[Cooperhawk]

I should add that being of Scotch Irish descent, we usually do a wake. That tradition has been going on for decades and we intend to keep it going. The only difference is that each wake has one less in attendance, (the deceased) and maybe one or two new attendees.

Last evening it ended with dinner at a really good local steak house and drinks on our deck till midnight. It's an old family thing and if he were still alive Uncle Dick would have been in the midst of it.

I love having a large family.
But one has to get used to going to a lot of funerals. :roll: