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HomeMy WebLinkAbout Robert A. Cooper, Brazos Valley HeroesBy Bill Youngkin. Special fo The Eagle The USS Natoma Bay, an aircraft carrier, was involved in 13 battles during World War II, including the greatest sea battle of the war, Leyte Gulf. Robert A. Cooper, now of the Crestview .Retirement Center, was aboard the Natoma for every battle. His story begins on August 2,1921. As he recalled, "I was born in Sayre, Oklahoma, and lived there until I was 16. We moved to Longview, Texas, where I enrolled at Judson High School for my last two years. After I graduated in 1941, my dad helped me get a job as a machinist with the Southern Pac'rfic Railroad at Tucumcari, N.M. "With the war breaking out, everyone was volunteering or getting drafted. I decided to join the Navy, which I did in May of 1942. I was sworn in at EI Paso and did my training at San Diego, Cal'rfomia. ft was supposed to take four weeks for boot training but they sent our group through in three weeks. With three weeks, training I was sent to Mare Island near San Francisco, where I was assigned to the supply ship the USS "The day we went aboard, the Captain addressed us on deck and asked 'rf anyone had any experience with steam. I stepped forward and said I did because of my experience with the railroad before the war. The Captain sent me to the XO with the instructions to change my rate to water tender 3rd Class. I spent the rest of my time in the Navy in the fire room keeping the steam up so the turbines could function properly. "The job we had on the Caster was to take supplies to our forces in the South Pacrfic. We would hug the coast all the way down to the tip of South America and then head to New Zealand and Australia and our 3rd Fleet, then located at New Caledonia. I made two of those trips before reporting to duly aboard the USS Natoma Bay, a newly commissioned aircraft carrier "Our role on the Natoma was to assist with all the landings .. our forces would be involved in for the rest of the war. We were in 13 battles before the war ended. Two battles remain very vivid in my memory, the Battle of Leyte Gulf and the last one, Sakishima, where we were hit by a kamikaze plane. That is where I almost lost my I'rfe. Several of my shipmates did lose theirs. "When we were engaged in battle, I was in the boiler room with the doors behind me locked. You could not see what was happening, but you could tell what was happening by the sound of our guns. When the 5-inch guns were used, you knew the enemy was far off. When the 40-mms kicked in, they were getting closer. With the 20-mm guns you knew they were even closer, and when the .50-caliber machine guns opened up, they were right on top of us." The Battle of Leyte Gulf is used as a teaching model at the U.S. Naval Academy on how to effectively and strategically use a smaller naval force to defeat a much larger naval force. As recalled by Cooper, "We were supporting our ground invasion of the Philippines when the Japanese fleet surprised our forces at Leyte Gulf. They came through some narrow straits that we didn't think they could get through. Early that morning we didn't have any idea that anything was out of the ordinary until we received urgent radio dispatches that our small outlying ships were being shelled by a much larger Japanese fleet. We could see their masts and their smoke in the distance and knew they would be in close range quickly. The only thing we could do was launch every plane we had. Throughout the battle we launched six aerial strikes from the Natoma against the Japanese fleet. By the fourth strike the Japanese fleet turned, with our planes and ships now in pursuit. Our whole ship had worked as awell-trained team to defeat the Japanese navy. "When it was over, RearAdmiral Stump, who was aboard the Natoma, rewarded all of us with the words, 'I am proud to be in the same navy with you.' As navy men, we couldn't have asked for more praise than that. With that battle being won, we went right back that same day to our original job, supporting the ground invasion on Leyte Island. "The other distinct memdry I have is of Sakishima, which is on the southern end of Japan. We had been under attack by kamikaze planes during most of the battles from the Marshall Islands to Okihawa, especially Okinawa. We were never hit by any kamikaze until Sakishima. This was the same area where President Bush was shot down. "I was on a work detail that morning and they let half of us on the detail go to breakfast. When the kamikaze hit, he tore a hole in our flight deck, exploding below decks. When I opened the door to my work station, the fire hit me in the face. My officer had a hole through his chest as big as my fist but he was still alive. He died as he was being carried to the hospital. I'm probably alive today because I was at breakfast when that attack occurred. "We put the fire out, removed the dead and started to repair the damages. By 6 p.m. that same day, we had repaired the hole in our flight deck-and our planes started landing aboard our ship again. We returned to the states for repairs, and that was where I was when the war ended." After the war Cooper would return to the railroad ind~ retiring from Southern Pacrfic Railroad after 41 years in Antonio. He moved to Bryan in 2000 to be near his chit and grandchildren. When asked about his experience and what it meant to him, Cooper replied, "You don't appreciate the peace we have until you have gone to war" RobertA. Coooper's name is found on the Brazos galley l/eterans Memorial d you want to have a name added to the Veterans Memorial, for more information, to make a contribution, orifyou knowa WorldWarll veteran whose story needs to be told, contact the BWMaf www. veteransmemorial. org or Bill Youngkin at (979) 260-7030.