A U.S Veteran Dedicated to Ending Unemployment among All Veterans
By Adair Olney
Melvin Delano Cooper
February 21, 1936 – April 24, 2016
Melvin Cooper (“Melvin Cooper Obituary,” https://obits.gazette.com/us/obituaries/gazette/name/melvin-cooper-obituary?pid=179817365, accessed June 13, 2021.)
For many veterans, their service and association with the United States military is complete when their duties in a particular conflict are finished. But this was decidedly not the case for Mel Cooper. Cooper was a two-war veteran of Korea and Vietnam who took up a job in the Colorado Department of Veterans Affairs in the 1970s, helping other veterans find stable jobs after their service. A decorated American hero himself, Mr. Cooper did not hesitate to extend his assistance to veterans across the state of Colorado who may have been struggling to re-integrate back into society. Mel lived a long life defined by service and commitment to the United States and its veterans.
Melvin “Mel” Delano Cooper was born on February 21, 1936 to parents Sam and Ida Cooper in Jackson, Alabama.[1] One of nine children, Mel Cooper spent much of his childhood surrounded by lots of family; records suggest that while residing in his hometown of Jackson, six-year-old Mel lived with his grandfather John F. Cooper, father Sam, and many aunts and uncles.[2]
By all accounts, the three-generation Cooper family was forced to relocate their family to Jackson, Alabama due to the Tennessee Valley Authority dam, a “federally-owned electric utility corporation in the United States.”[3] President Franklin Delano Roosevelt helped initiate the foundation of the TVA in 1933 as an integral part of the New Deal, and today the TVA prides itself on being the “the original green power since 1933” that uses “29 power-generating dams and the pumped storage plant near Chattanooga, Tenn” to provide “clean, low-cost reliable power to 10 million people across seven southeastern states.”[4]
The specific project that initiated the Cooper family’s relocation was the Guntersville Dam Project, an operation led by the TVA to establish a dam and reservoir in the town of Guntersville, Alabama.[5] The extensive energy project provided millions in the southeast with power, although it sadly came at a cost to many families, including the Coopers, who were forced to find a new home, as is evident in an Ancestry case file on the Cooper family.[6]
Mel Cooper dedicated over a quarter of his life to serving his country, starting by serving in the Korean War as an infantryman in the United States Army.[7] Cooper would have been no older than 18 when he volunteered to fight in the Korean War. And when Mel Cooper returned home from Korea he soon found himself in the midst of another global conflict, the Vietnam War. Cooper served his country for a second time over in Vietnam, but it would not be the last time he committed himself to the efforts of the United States military and its military personnel.[8]
Mel Cooper’s consistent service in the United States Army was properly recognized with the following awards: the National Defense Services Medal; the Vietnam Services Medal with 3 Bronze Service Star, a medal awarded to many U.S servicemen for their efforts in the Vietnam War, with each star representing one campaign served; the Vietnam Campaign Medal with 60 Device; and the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palm, bestowed upon those who displayed “valor and heroic conduct while fighting the enemy”.[9] Mel further received the Bronze Star Medal, as well as the Army Commendation Medal with one Oak Cluster and Good Conduct Medal with 6th Awards.[10]
In the midst of his service in Vietnam, 28-year-old Mel returned home to the United States to marry his future wife Sandra Kay Searcy, who was also 28 years of age at the time of their wedding.[11] The pair was wed on October 31, 1964 in Marion County, Tennessee, in the Chattanooga region of the state.[12]
Many Americans greatly opposed the war in Vietnam; the foreign war became more and more unpopular as the long conflict stretched on, and violence and devastation on both sides grew. Due to the unpopularity of the war, military personnel returning home from the war were not always met with the warmth and excitement that the greatest generation was met with when World War II ended in 1945. Many Vietnam War veterans remember getting “the middle finger” and being “spit on” by civilians — the country they returned home to was divided and broken after a war the United States had lost.[13]
In spite of the tensions, Mel’s commitment to his country and veterans that served did not wane. Mel began to work in the Veterans Affairs Division for the state of Colorado, specifically assisting veterans find jobs after their service was completed.[14] This was a difficult task, as many employers were reluctant to hire them. Scholar Patrick Hagopian, the author of The Vietnam War in American Memory: Veterans, Memorials, and the Politics of Healing, discusses the reasons behind the challenges so many Vietnam veterans faced once they returned from service. He writes that these veterans “carried the stains of defeat and disgrace,” their time in this regrettable war having left their reputations tarnished and making them undesirable to employ.[15]
Unemployment among U.S veterans is one of the gravest issues the group faces still today. The New York Times used a recent LinkedIn study to exemplify these trends: “Veterans are 37 percent more likely to be underemployed than nonveterans,” as they “are often pushed towards low-skill jobs,” despite the fact that “the culture of the military might well translate into other types of positions.”[16] As Joan Lynch, the founder of WorkingNation, a nonprofit campaign that focuses on U.S. labor explains, “The employers are saying ‘It’s not our job to train them.’ So whose job is it to train veterans for the work force? The military? No; they teach them to defend our nation. Employers aren’t doing it, either.”[17] This grave social issue often results in qualified and brave servicemen and women “being turned down for jobs delivering dry cleaning.” [18]
Often, the difference between an unemployed veteran and one with a high-paying job is the lack of certification or degrees, says an article from the Combat Veterans to Careers website.[19] The United States military “trains well for military jobs,” but often does not provide the proper licenses or certifications for popular civilian jobs, leaving veterans behind in U.S. society.[20] However, it is not just the absence of a degree that limits veteran job options; transition stress or PTSD can also contribute to the difficulty of securing a job.[21] Many veterans find that the military “provides a sense of purpose, well-defined roles and hierarchy, camaraderie, honor, and mission” which are all things “that can be hard to find or define in the civilian world.” Thus, when they return home, “they’re back at square one,” which can cause a multitude of issues.[22]
It was this very array of challenges that Mel diligently worked to combat during his own reintegration into the civilian world. Through dignity, service, and personal experience as a veteran himself, Mel made a distinct difference through his work at the Colorado Department of Veterans Affairs. Melvin Cooper was also deeply adored by his family, who wrote a touching obituary about their father and grandfather after his passing. He is remembered as “a loving son, husband, brother, father, grandfather, and great grandfather” who “never met a stranger” and was widely considered “simply the best!”[23] Mel’s loved ones wrote that he “was born in Alabama, saw the world and chose Colorado Springs, Colorado to rest.”[24]
Footnotes ↓
[1] “Melvin Cooper Obituary,” https://obits.gazette.com/us/obituaries/gazette/name/melvin-cooper-obituary?pid=179817365, accessed June 13, 2021.
[2] "Family Removal and Readjustment Case Files," Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/56648:4903?tid=&pid=&queryId=d40314520fccc8e1bcb5da16ffaa5f91&_phsrc=cEA254&_phstart=successSource, accessed June 27, 2021.
[3] “Board of Directors,” TVA.com, a federally-owned electric utility corporation in the United States, accessed August 3, 2021.
[4] “Tennessee Valley Authority,” TVA.com, https://www.tva.com/newsroom/articles/renewables-all-the-rage-we-ve-been-doing-it-since-1933, accessed August 3, 2021.
[5] “Guntersville,” TVA.com, https://www.tva.com/energy/our-power-system/hydroelectric/guntersville, accessed August 3, 2021.
[6] "Family Removal and Readjustment Case Files," Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/56648:4903?tid=&pid=&queryId=d40314520fccc8e1bcb5da16ffaa5f91&_phsrc=cEA254&_phstart=successSource, accessed June 27, 2021.
[7] “Melvin Cooper Obituary,” https://obits.gazette.com/us/obituaries/gazette/name/melvin-cooper-obituary?pid=179817365, accessed June 13, 2021.
[8] Ibid.
[9] “Cross of Gallantry, Vietnam Display Recognition, Medal and Ribbon,” Amervets.com, https://www.amervets.com/replacement/vcog.htm, accessed August 19, 2021.
[10] Ibid.; “Code of Federal Regulations,” Govinfo.org, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2008-title32-vol3/xml/CFR-2008-title32-vol3-sec578-26.xml, accessed August 19, 2021.
[11] “Sandra Kay Searcy,” Tennessee, U.S Marriage Records, 1780-2002,” Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/2701176:1169?tid=&pid=&queryId=a231430ab53415442e4683e4606f6612&_phsrc=cEA318&_phstart=successSource, accessed August 6, 2021.
[12] Ibid.
[13] “Why Were Vietnam War Vets Treated Poorly When They Returned” History.com, https://www.history.com/news/vietnam-war-veterans-treatment, accessed August 19, 2021.
[14] "“Melvin Cooper Obituary,” https://obits.gazette.com/us/obituaries/gazette/name/melvin-cooper-obituary?pid=179817365, accessed June 13, 2021.
[15] Patrick Hagopian, The Vietnam War in American Memory: Veterans, Memorials, and the Politics of Healing (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2009), 49.
[16] “Veterans Are Working, but Not in Jobs That Match Their Advanced Training,” New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/07/us/politics/veterans-jobs-employment.html, accessed August 6, 2021.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Ibid.
[19] “5 Reasons Veterans Struggle to Transition to the Civilian Workforce,” Combat Veterans to Careers,” https://combatveteranstocareers.org/5-reasons-veterans-struggle-transitioning-to-the-civilian-workplace/, accessed August 6, 2021.
[20] Ibid.
[21] Ibid.
[22] Ibid.
[23] “Melvin Cooper Obituary,” https://obits.gazette.com/us/obituaries/gazette/name/melvin-cooper-obituary?pid=179817365, accessed June 13, 2021.
[24] Ibid.
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