Lieutenant Commander Barry Thomas Cooke - A Sailor's Story
.jpeg "Lieutenant Commander Barry Thomas Cooke – U.S. Navy Aviator, Gulf War")
Lieutenant Commander Barry Thomas Cooke - A Sailor's Story
Lieutenant Commander Barry Thomas Cooke
Born June 27, 1955 - Died February 2, 1991
Lieutenant Commander Barry Thomas Cooke was born on June 27, 1955, in Waxahachie, Texas. He graduated from McCallum High School in Austin in 1973 and went on to earn a Bachelor of Science in Aviation from the Aviation Technological University in Killeen, Texas. Following his undergraduate studies, he completed flight training at Naval Aviation Schools Command in Pensacola, Florida.
Lieutenant Commander Cooke served at naval stations in Texas and Washington state and aboard two aircraft carriers, the USS America and the USS Enterprise. He later joined VA-36 at Naval Air Station Oceana, where he served as both an operational pilot and a flight instructor. His first deployment to the Middle East was aboard the USS John F. Kennedy.
In December 1990, Lieutenant Commander Cooke deployed again to the Middle East aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt in support of Operation Desert Storm. On February 2, 1991, the A-6E Intruder he was piloting was shot down by a surface-to-air missile. He has been missing in action since that date.
Lieutenant Commander Barry Thomas Cooke is memorialized at Arlington National Cemetery.
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