Cooper, Richard Waller Jr.
Air Force Major

Richard Waller Jr. Cooper, age 30, from Salisbury, Maryland, Wicomico county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: December 19, 1972
Death details: On August 7, 2003, Joint Task Force-Full Accounting (JTF-FA, now DPAA) identified the remains of Major Richard Waller Cooper Jr., missing from the Vietnam War.

Major Cooper joined the U.S. Air Force from Maryland and was a member of the 346th Bombardment Squadron. On December 19, 1972, he was the navigator aboard a B-52D Stratofortress (serial number 60608) on a night bombing mission near Hanoi, Vietnam. The B-52D was downed by enemy surface-to-air missiles, and Maj Cooper was killed in the incident. Enemy presence in the area prevented immediate search efforts for the aircraft’s crew. In February 1996, a joint U.S. and Vietnamese investigative team recovered remains that U.S. analysts eventually identified as those of Maj Cooper.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency