Jeff Cooper: Rest in Peace

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Jeff Cooper, one of the world's foremost experts on the use and history of small arms, died yesterday. Paul Vance also died yesterday.

"Who's Paul Vance?" you ask.

Mr. Vance wrote the song Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini. :rolleyes:

Of these two indivdiuals, only one was deemed worthy enough to be noted on Yahoo News.

So take a guess... do you think Yahoo News metioned Mr. Cooper's death, or Mr. Vance's death?

If you said "Mr Vance's death," go to the head of the class:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060926/ap_on_en_mu/obit_vance

:banghead:
 
I was my pleasure to have spent a night and a day with the Colonel, Janelle and Lindy some years back. They justly deserve to be called American Royalty. The world is truly diminished with the Colonels passing!

Fair Thee Well Jeff…God Speed
 
Father, into Your hands we commend the spirit of a hero. He did things to protect his fellow man that many were incapable of doing. He did them and then taught others. This was his legacy, Lord. To learn, refine and pass on that knowledge. His life has enriched us all. We mourn his passing, rejoice at the end of his suffering, long for a reunion one day. Amen.

God speed, Sir.
 
From the halls of Montezuma
to the shores of Tripoli
We will fight our countries battles
in the air, on land and sea
First to fight for right and freedom
and to keep our honor clean
I am proud to share the title
with Jeff Cooper, of United States Marine.


It is pleasant for me to know that the streets of heaven are now guarded by Jeff Cooper. Rest In Peace.
 
Rest well, Jeff. Thanks to you, many people have the skill needed to survive and the mindset needed to apply that skill.
 
I wish I could have met the man. My Father is just 7 years younger than the Colonel was and as such I grew up with some old school values. I believe the Colonel represented what was best of his generation. They had respect for all things and people. They said please and thank you alot. They weren't afraid of following their hearts and didn't act like cattle or sheep when the time came to take action. Truly the greatest example of America and what she stands for. I will try to establish these virtues in my 2 sons while its still early in there lives. Rest In Peace Sir, and maybe someday we will meet and enjoy some range time together. But I will make sure to have a 45 and leave my 9mm behind.
 
The Prescott (Arizona) Daily Courier remembers him:

America lost a national treasure Monday, but most Americans will never know it.

Yet many of those Americans may be alive today because of John Dean "Jeff" Cooper, who died Monday afternoon at the Sconce, his beloved home near Gunsite, the shooting training center he founded about 10 miles north of Chino Valley.

Most people who know anything about guns and shooting know who Jeff Cooper was. They rightly called him "The Gunner's Guru." He was the world's foremost expert on small arms (rifles, shotguns and handguns).

He was born John Dean Cooper on May 10, 1920. He earned a master's degree in history and taught history. He also served in the U.S. Marine Corps in World War II, Southeast Asia and Korea. He separated from the service as a lieutenant colonel and most who knew him called him "The Colonel."

In the course of his military combat experience and shooting contests he organized in Big Bear, Calif., in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he developed the "modern technique" of using a handgun for personal protection.

In 1976, he founded the American Pistol Institute or Gunsite, near Paulden in 1976. Since then, nearly 18,000 people have received training there in how to use handguns, rifles and shotguns to protect their lives and the lives of others.
 
I am saddened that I was never able to meet Mister Cooper. I deeply respect his writings, even if I often disagreed with them. His methods helped revolutionize the shooting community and he lives on in little details, odd phrases like "Condition Yellow" and "All gun are always loaded."

Another one of the Old Guard of practical fighting men hears the final call of Taps. I hope that somewhere in the hearafter, the Colonel is riding, shooting straight, and speaking the truth.
 
"The Guru"

We have lost a great teacher and leader. I think most if not all will agree that the Col. has truly impacted shooting, tactics and personal defense more than any other individual. I also believe that he will continue to influence these factors for decades to come. He like his chosen 1911 will impact for years on end. Many of the problems in our society would be eliminated if we were just to fallow many of his principles and ideas. He was and will always be an example of Freedom, Respect and Service. May we all take what he has taught us and pass it on to our youth. The world has been a safer and better place due to the Col. May we remember him and his memory by practicing what he preached in righteousness!
 
"Weapons are the tools of power," he wrote back in 1979. "In the hands of the state, they can be the tools of decency or the tools of oppression, depending on the righteousness that state. In the hands of criminals, they are the tools of evil. In the hands of the free and decent citizen, they should be the tools of liberty. Weapons compound man's power to achieve whatever purpose he may have. They amplify the capabilities of both the good man and the bad, and to exactly the same degree., having no will of their own. Thus, we must regard them as servants, not masters--and good servants of good men. Without them, man is diminished, and his opportunities to fulfill his destiny are lessened. An unarmed man can only free from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it."

Col. Cooper and his wisdom will be missed.
 
I had the honor and pleasure of briefly meeting Colonel Cooper in Kansas City, at the 2001 NRA national convention. He spoke a few words, gave me a smile and whizzed off on his motorized wheel chair.

I attended that show with my friend Carl. Carl's an ex-Marine (I know, no Marine is ever "ex"). Carl suffers from MS, and was on his own wheel chair. We left the downtown arena, and crossed a couple streets. We were crossing with the light at one intersection, and just ahead of us was a large limo with darkened windows. Several burly, no-nonsense bodyguards that could have played line for the Bears surrounded the limo. As we approached, Charlton Heston stepped from a doorway and into the waiting limo. Carl and I continued on the sidewalk, walking and rolling past the limo just prior to its departure. We both gave our salutes of honor to the blackened window, and it descended and Mr. Heston smiled and returned our salutation. The limo then sped off. As an NRA Life member, Mr. Heston was my president.

My brush with two admired and appreciated men, now both departed.
 
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