B-52H Stratofortress crash site photos

KUAM's CBS affiliate, WBNS-10 TV in Columbus, Ohio, has confirmed the identity of one of the crew members who was aboard the B-52H Stratofortress that crashed off the coast of the island on Monday morning.

According to our affiliate, they identified one of the six crew members as Colonel George Martin who has served as a military doctor for the last 25 years and the second in command at the medical unit at Andersen Air Force Base.

According to the Andersen Air Force Base Public Affairs Office, the bodies of two B-52 crew members were recovered during rescue operations on Monday. Officials are withholding the identities of the crew members but confirm that the identity of one of the recovered crew members has been determined but efforts are still underway to notify family members.

The bomber, deployed from Barksdale Air Force Base to the Yigo base, was involved in a training mission on Liberation Day and was scheduled to perform a flyover during the island's annual Liberation Day Parade when for unknown reasons, the aircraft and its 6 crew members aboard crashed off the coast of Guam about 9:45 Monday morning.

The Air Force has confirmed that the bodies of two crew members were recovered, but they have not released the identities of those individuals. The military also confirmed that there were no weapons or munitions aboard the aircraft that was deployed to AAFB as part of the Department of Defense's continuous bomber presence mission in the Pacific region.

KUAM News
Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Andersen Air Force Base is comprised of many rotational forces, one of which has just recently arrived on island. USAF Major Chris Cooper is a pilot in the 96th Expeditionary Bomber Squadron from Barksdale AFB in Lousiana. They're on Guam on a rotational basis as part of Andersen's continuous bomber presence, with the type of bomber Cooper flies being the classic, indispensable B-52.

This historic piece of U.S. military history is an old model that Cooper says is extremely well designed. It has to be - the plane itself weighs about 200,000 pounds when it's empty and 488,000 thousand pounds at full capacity. "This is a combat aircraft obviously and we use it in combat as a heavy bomber it's been to Iraq, it's been to Afganistan, it's been everywhere," Cooper explained.

To get this heavy bomber off the ground it relies on its 185-foot wingspan that is capable of flexing up to 16 feet at the wingtip. "It's a wetwing," Cooper explained, saying that such devices store a lot of fuel in the wing. These wings have fuel bladders that enable the bomber to carry up to 100,000 pounds of fuel. The plane needs this fuel to power these gas guzzling engines. Said Cooper, "We have...a grand total of 134,000 pounds of thrust, so this plane can really move."

The bomber of course is equipped with bombs one of the more common of these bombs is the joint directed attack munition (JDAM). It's a 2,000-pound, GPS-guided bomb. But don't let the naming of the aircraft fool you - it's also capable of carrying missiles. "Right now, we're the only airplane that can carry the conventional air launch cruise missile," he continued.

Cooper says firepower aside, the B-52s make for a safe, stable airplane that is well designed to deal with emergency procedures. In fact, with eight engines Cooper says this plane is capable of flying if one goes down. Aside from being able to fly such an important and powerful hunk of metal, Cooper says he's thrilled to be on Guam and happy about all the support he's received from the community.

WNYF News
Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The Massena community is mourning one of its own - a decorated Afghanistan and Iraq veteran killed when the B-52 bomber he was piloting crashed into the Pacific Ocean near Guam on Monday.

Air Force Major Christopher Cooper graduated from Massena Central School in 1992.

Cooper’s body and that of another crew member were recovered Monday while the search goes on for four other members of the crew.

The unarmed bomber had been headed for a flyover in a parade celebrating the liberation of Guam from Japan.

Cooper was the son of longtime Alcoa spokesman Mike Cooper, who spent 16 years at Alcoa’s Massena operations.

“He was doing what he wanted to do in life and he was proud of it and we were proud of him,” said Mike Cooper.

Cooper, an 11 year veteran of the Air Force, would have celebrated his 34th birthday on August 10.

Retired Massena High School English teacher Lee Baines remembers Christopher Cooper not only as a family-oriented student, but also as playing an active role in the school’s drama club and musical theater programs.

“When I think about Chris, I think about family, his late mother, his brother Tim and his father Mike. Chris had many talents. He always knew he was going to be a pilot and he always knew he was going to go into the military,” said Baines.

A memorial service for Major Cooper and other members of the bomber crew is being planned at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana but arrangements are incomplete.

Meanwhile, Cooper’s brother, Tim, is encouraging people to send memories, pictures and stories involving Chris to this email address:

rememberingchris@gmail.com

“I would simply ask folks to be respectful as it is for our family to view. Eventually we will try to setup a website with pics and stories and such for everyone to view,” Chris wrote in an email.