Captain RA Cooper

Adjutant
Captain Cooper was born in Toronto, Ontario, on 28 April 1980.  He spent the majority of his formative years in Unionville, just north of Toronto.  He joined the military in 1999 and was posted to Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians) upon completion of Phase IV Armour in August of 2003.  His first year at the Regiment was spent as a tank troop leader.  During this time he deployed on Op PEREGRINE, fighting the BC forest fires, from August – September and competed in the CAN-AM Cup, a tank gunnery competition, in Boise Idaho from October – November along with a number of smaller exercises.  During the remainder of his first tour in Edmonton, Captain Cooper served as Regimental Transport Officer and Assistant Adjutant at the Strathcona’s, and as Personal Assistant to the Commander and G1 Operations at Headquarters 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group.  From January – March of 2005, Captain Cooper and a composite troop of Strathconas were attached OPCOM to 1 Combat Engineer Regiment for Op NORTHERN SAPPER, a sovereignty operation in the vicinity of Arctic Bay, Nunavut.  This cemented his reputation as a bit of a “Dom Ops Savant.”

In May of 2006, Captain Cooper was posted to the Armour School as Directing Staff.  During his two-year stint in Gagetown, Captain Cooper instructed on three reconnaissance leadership courses and was Course Officer for another four recce and two tank courses.  He also acted as a tank troop leader and Battle Group Branch Advisor (Armour) for the 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment Battle Group during the ROYAL ARCHER series of exercises and supported both the Infantry School and Artillery School as an armour advisor for a number of their courses.  He finished his time at the School in Standards Squadron double-hatted as the Second-in-Command and Chief Planner for Exercise FIRST CONTACT 2008 and the E-Learning and Simulation Officer.  

He was posted back to the Strathcona’s in June of 2008 as Battle Captain C Squadron, a tank squadron.  He deployed on combat operations in this capacity with the Groupement Tactique 2e Bataillon, Royal 22e Régiment to Kandahar on Operation ATHENA Roto 7 from March – October 2009.  Upon return from Afghanistan, Captain Cooper attended the Army Operations Course, Serial 20.  He then moved to the Brigade Reconnaissance Squadron as Second-in-Command.  He was appointed Adjutant of Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians) on 17 December 2010.

Captain Cooper is married to the beautiful and talented Stephanie. They were blessed with identical twin boys, Robert Benjamin and Jonathan William, who were born in the summer of 2009.  In the spring of 2011, they welcomed their beautiful daughter, Addison Marie, into the world.  Their family is rounded out by Fred, a rabbit, and Zhukov, a lab/hound/raccoon cross.  When not working, his pastimes include skiing, swimming and running.  He also enjoys Cuban cigars, most types of beer, and single-malt scotch, though he only rarely enjoys all three at the same time.