Recruiter on serving: ‘It’s very rewarding’

He didn’t recruit his own sons. Sgt. 1st Class Douglas Cooper left that to his colleagues at the U.S. Army’s Lynnwood Career Center.

His sons, Jeffrey and Jay Cooper, hardly needed a sales pitch to join up. They followed their father’s example of military life.

“They grew up with it. The Army, to them, was very normal. It was their own decision,” said Cooper, who at 56 has been told he’s the oldest Army recruiter in the county.

The Mill Creek man said he asked his sons, both Jackson High School graduates, to think about their choice, “to make sure it’s what they wanted to do.”

“I didn’t do their paperwork. My colleagues put their packets together,” he said. “But of course I’m their recruiter. I’m their dad. They’re the only two sons I have.”

His older son took an uncommon route to the Army. Jeffrey Cooper, 22, served in the Coast Guard Reserve. In May, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the California Maritime Academy. “He saw the light and found the Army,” the father joked about Jeffrey, who is about to leave for the Army’s Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Ga.

Army Pfc. Jay Cooper, 20, finished Infantry School at Fort Benning in May. He is now with the Infantry 10th Mountain Division at Fort Polk, La.

Before this Veterans Day weekend, Douglas Cooper reflected on steering other people’s sons and daughters into the Army or Army Reserve. He has shared with parents that his own children are serving.

“It’s very rewarding,” he said. “I like talking to young people in high school. And I talk to a lot of college graduates, people really struggling to find their places. Many of the parents, I think they’re surprised to meet me. I show them pictures of my sons.”

Cooper said he sometimes asks people to mentally “change the channel” if their image of Army life is “going down the streets of Baghdad looking for bad guys.”

He tells parents there’s “a whole other Army Reserve, it isn’t all that shock wave depicted on TV.”

“I start with my Army story, where it’s taken me in my life,” he said.

His military duty, some of which he called “back-office paperwork,” was punctuated by a long civilian career. Cooper joined the Army in 1976 after high school in Pennsylvania. He was an active-duty soldier until 1980.

Trained by the Army as a lineman, he worked for AT&T, which later became Comcast. He stayed 29 years with the communications company, which transferred him from Philadelphia to Seattle. As a manager of technical operations with Comcast, he was responsible for the city of Seattle’s cable networks.

While working and raising his boys, Cooper was also in the Army Reserve. “Most of my career in the military was as a reservist,” he said. In 2009, he was mobilized as a reservist to teach classes “to get everybody ready for deployment.”

After retiring from Comcast, Cooper looked into the Army’s Active Guard Reserve program. Now with active-duty status, he works full time recruiting for the Army National Guard and Reserve.

He visits campuses, including Edmonds Community College. At Jackson High School, he taught a short course covering America’s founding fathers.

“I believe I am the oldest recruiter in the U.S. Army,” Cooper said. Mandatory retirement age in the Army Reserve is 62.

Cooper sees military experience as a solid first step in life.

“Raising your children, they pass through phases — infants to toddlers to adolescents. The hardest part you don’t see coming is when they get out of high school. If you don’t get a good solid step right out of school, you can really sink,” he said. “With the military, they’ve got that piece of concrete, that critical first step.”

The Reserves also help young people pay for college. One memory that stands out is talking with a young man who was working in pouring rain as a roadside sign-holder.

“He was dressed up in a Statue of Liberty outfit,” Cooper said. “I pulled over, introduced myself, and said I wanted to tell him about the Army Reserves,” Cooper said. “He is no longer holding that sign.”

Cooper said the man’s goal had been to attend culinary school, which he is now doing while serving in the U.S. Army Reserve.

Along with the benefits of military service come risks. Ours is still a nation at war.

“It’s something to take seriously,” Cooper said. “But you’re not walking around with a sense of fear. You believe in the American way of life. It’s an honor supporting our beliefs and values. I look back on my life, I never regretted it.”

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Everett mall renderings from Brixton Capital. (Photo provided by the City of Everett)
Topgolf at the Everett Mall? Mayor’s hint still unconfirmed

After Cassie Franklin’s annual address, rumors circled about what “top” entertainment tenant could be landing at Everett Mall.

Everett
Everett man sentenced to 3 years of probation for mutilating animals

In 2022, neighbors reported Blayne Perez, 35, was shooting and torturing wildlife in north Everett.

Dorothy Crossman rides up on her bike to turn in her ballot  on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Everett leaders plan to ask voters for property tax increase

City officials will spend weeks hammering out details of a ballot measure, as Everett faces a $12.6 million deficit.

Starbucks employee Zach Gabelein outside of the Mill Creek location where he works on Friday, Feb. 23, 2024 in Mill Creek, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Mill Creek Starbucks votes 21-1 to form union

“We obviously are kind of on the high of that win,” store bargaining delegate Zach Gabelein said.

Lynnwood police respond to a collision on highway 99 at 176 street SW. (Photo provided by Lynnwood Police)
Police: Teen in stolen car flees cops, causes crash in Lynnwood

The crash blocked traffic for over an hour at 176th Street SW. The boy, 16, was arrested on felony warrants.

The view of Mountain Loop Mine out the window of a second floor classroom at Fairmount Elementary on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
County: Everett mining yard violated order to halt work next to school

At least 10 reports accused OMA Construction of violating a stop-work order next to Fairmount Elementary. A judge will hear the case.

Imagine Children's Museum's incoming CEO, Elizabeth "Elee" Wood. (Photo provided by Imagine Children's Museum)
Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett to welcome new CEO

Nancy Johnson, who has led Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett for 25 years, will retire in June.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.