Customer Reviews

Cheers and Tears: A Marine's Story of Combat in Peace and War

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Charlie Cooper is a classmate of mine from the Naval Academy, Class of 1950. He was on the varsity football team at Navy. After graduation he was badly wounded in Korea as a platoon commander, served with honor in Vietnam, and had many interesting tours of duty, including the command of the Marine Barracks in Washington, DC. Charlie retired as a Lieutenant General in charge of the Fleet Marine Force, Pacific. He tells the great story of his career in a straightforward and honest manner.

As a Military Historian (by hobby), and retired Military (Army) Officer I read this book cover to cover, with only a *latrine break*, before placing it on the (electronic) bookshelf.. It was a detailed yet down to earth biography of a Soldier/Marine.. Easy reading.. I hope to write one as good one day whenever I've collected/gathered all my notes in one pile.. GDY, 0-6 (Ret)..

very well written with meticulous detail to time lines, places and names. A great overview of one marine's life. The opening prologue is what originally attracted me to the book. I hope some day that this writer expands on that opening statement.

A very thoughtful and inciting biography of a great American hero and man. As a Vietnam Army veteran, I witnessed first hand experience of the deterioration of discipline in the ranks and some poor leadership by command. It's about time someone addressed this issue. Thank you Lt. General Charles G. Cooper for taking this first step. God Bless you.

This book was a good historical perspective of a career of a Marine officer. It is very well written and easy to read.

Very good biography of my old Barracks commander. Lots of good insite to our Marine Corps.

Charles Cooper entered the Naval Academy in 1946, the first post-World War-II class, and graduated in 1950. His description of those four years of the regimen at the Academy is the best I have ever read and a stark contrast from the current coed/liberal/college atmosphere which has prevailed at the Naval Academy since the seventies. For Cooper the traditional curriculum, discipline and ethos of Service which had been unchanged at the Academy since its founding in 1845 provided the foundation for building an exemplary career of Service for his country.

The heart of his story, and the remainder of the book, begins the day after graduation as a Marine Corps second lieutenant. In less than a
year he was in Korea, a platoon leader, replacing a lieutenant who had been killed several days before. In the next three chapters Cooper tells about his combat as an infantry man in the rugged mountainous terrain as they kept pressure against the retreating Chinese and North Koreans. An all out assault was ordered to take Hill 907 with Cooper's platoon leading the attack. Hill 907 was the command post of the 10th North Korean Division and was serving as the rear guard of the Chinese Corps.

As Cooper signaled what was left of his platoon (12 to 15 Marines) to move forward with him the volume of fire swelled and he heaved his last white phosphorous grenade as far as he could to mark the enemy position for two Air Force F-80s overhead with napalm. The grenade had flown some thirty yards when a massive blow on his left side flattened him. Cooper was grievously wounded but the corpsman moved like a fash and stuffed his kidney back into a large hole in his lower back. What happened next as the North Koreans counter-attacked is best told by Cooper himself. "We couldn't kill them fast enough and, heavily out numbered, were about to take on the North Korean counter-attack in hand-to-hand combat. As they started moving my carbine was hit on the stock and literally blown out of my hands. Conscious but unable to move my legs, I drew my fighting knife. It would be the last resort. There was nothing else left. We never heard it coming. Hell exploded through the trees. The napalm bombs burst in the branches directly over the North Korean troops, not thirty yards away. Fire and flames were everywhere. The heat was unbelievable. We had burns and almost suffocated, but the North Korean counter-attack had been incinerated en masse. It was no more."

Lieutenant Cooper, to the utter disbelief of the doctors not only survived those wounds and fractures and a tortuous medvac under fire and recovered completely to have a lively and highly successful career in the Marine Corps, retiring as a Lieutenant General, and also another combat tour in another war, Vietnam. Which leads us back to the beginning of the book and his introduction titled "The Day It Became the Longest War"

This five page piece was originally published in the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings magazine in 1996 (Cheers and Tears was published six years later) and describes in detail a private meeting the Joint Chiefs of Staff had with President Johnson in the Oval Office in November 1965. Cooper was the Marine Aide to Admiral McDonald, the Chief of Naval Operations and had prepared a map of Vietnam mounted on plywood to be used to show the president graphically their recommendations regarding Vietnam. The easel which was to be provided by the White House was not available and so the president told Cooper to stand "over there" holding the map and so was privy to everything said in that meeting. It was an ugly nasty meeting with Johnson shouting, cursing, swearing, using language that even a Marine seldom hears, finally ending the conference by shouting "Get the hell out of my office!" Proceedings is not a widely read magazine and an account of this raucous meeting of the Joint Chiefs and the Commander-in-Chief was essentially not in the public domain until the publication of "Cheers and Tears."

All in all it is a great story, very well written and it carries a message that conveys hope, honor and pride.

Thomas W. Schaaf Commander U.S. Navy (Retired)
In 1949 Schaaf was a plebe at the Naval Academy when Cooper was a first classman. Schaaf graduated in 1953

An excellent read of an impressive military career and human being. I came across this book while searching for information about my brief 2 year career in the Marine Corps. Turns out that in 1966, then Lt Col Cooper and I both reported for duty a few days apart with the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines at Camp LeJeune, N.C. He reported as the Commanding Officer of 2/8 and I reported as a lowly 19 year old Private. As it turned out, I would see him in action almost daily for 18 months. I worked in Battalion Headquarters as a clerk/typist first for the Adjutant, Lt Dean Aggers and then for Major Joe Cody, S-3 Operations. Col Cooper's office was just a few steps down the hall, so we were all immersed in his dedication to duty.
These three Marine officers along with Capt Steve Leroux literally changed my life. They were all excellent role models for a young Marine -- strong discipline, work ethic, and leadership that trickled down to all those in the battalion. I found Gen Cooper's account of his time at 2/8 to be descriptive and totally accurate in details - exactly as I remembered 45 years ago.
I have about 50 photographs of my time at 2/8 and the CARIB 4-66 exercise. I regret that I only found this book now, 2 years after Gen Cooper died. I would have enjoyed sharing my photos of that time in our lives with him.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in military history post WWII, especially from the perspective of a combat Marine officer who rose to the top echelon in the officer corps. Gen Cooper's recollection of his attendance at the meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff with President Lyndon Johnson is worth the price of the book alone.

I stumbled across this book and I was astonished to see that the author had served as Staff Secretary at III MAF Headquarters in Danang, Vietnam. I worked for the Staff Secretary of III MAF but my tenure there was from December of 1967 to December 25, 1968. As a corporal I had trained all the members of the message processing group by the time I left including those that outranked me. General Robert E. Cushman, Jr. (later Commandant of the Marine Corps) was in command when I was there and he gave me a letter of commendation and the Chief of Staff gave me a plaque of appreciation. I found General Cooper's description of the place very accurate. We endured rocket attacks while I was there during the Tet Offensive and his description of the attacks he experienced brought back memories for me. My office chief (a Master Gunnery Sergeant) was killed in one of those attacks. Fortunately I was gone by the time the author arrived but this book informed me about events after my departure which I appreciated. In particular it gave me a greater appreciation of the job my boss (the Staff Secretary) was doing. The book is well written and covers periods in the history of our country and the Marine Corps from an interesting perspective. I wish I had been able to meet the author before he died.