By Air Force Senior Airman Cristina J. Allen, 177th Fighter Wing
Like father, like son.
Almost 40 years after Air Force Capt. Thomas J. Cooper was commissioned, his son, Air Force Maj. Brian T. Cooper, followed in his footsteps.
Brian, commander of the 177th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at the 177th Fighter Wing, New Jersey Air National Guard, was commissioned in the Air Force in 2003, and his father, Thomas, an aircraft maintenance officer, was commissioned in the Air Force in 1965.
Their reunion was made possible by Brian's temporary duty assignment at the Air Dominance Center here, close to Bluffton, South Carolina, where his parents have lived since 2004.
‘We're Just Two Jersey Guys'
“We're just two Jersey guys, and this just happens to be close to where they retired to,” Brian said. “I haven't lived with my parents in over 20 years, and I happen to be deployed here.”
As the two discussed their military careers, some similar views emerged.
“Everything is different, but nothing has changed,” said Thomas, an ROTC graduate out of Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Brian agreed.
“It is interesting on how different it is, yet how similar,” said Brian, distinguished Air Force ROTC graduate of the New Jersey Institute of Technology. “The very unique thing for us is the maintenance bible.”
Maintenance ‘Bible'
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