According to records, Wilbur Duvall Cooper, was born in Kansas. In 1930 his family was living in Belle Plaine, Sumner County, KS. Wilbur Cooper’s father, Carl T Cooper was a farmer. Between 1935 and 1940 the family moved to Salem, Sedwick County, KS where Wilbur’s father was operating a filling station in Salem.

According to Wilbur Cooper’s obituary, Wilbur was a 1947 graduate of Clearwater High School. After he graduated, he attended Southwestern College in Winfield before he entered pre-flight naval training in 1951. Wilbur graduated from pre-flight school at Pensacola, FL. He went on to complete flight training at Corpus Christi, TX and was then assigned to the USS Monterey to complete his pilot qualifications aboard an aircraft carrier.

Wilbur Duvall Cooper was one of eight Navy crew men who died at the end of the Korean Conflict.

The men who were in Patrol Squadron (VP-7) had completed their duty in the western Pacific and were headed home. Their plane a P2V-5 Neptune crashed after missing a landing approach at NAS Barbers Point, Hawaii on the island of Oahu on 22 Jan 1954. The entire crew perished in the crash.

Information provided by a family member: Wilbur Cooper's father, Carl, had purchased a farm near Oxford and they had just moved there when Wilbur was killed; the Navy did not have their new address and was not able to contact them. Instead, they contacted Wilbur's aunt, Dorothy, and she, her husband Howard, Wilbur's uncle John and aunt Mary drove over to Carl and Pearl's house to give them the sad news in person.

Crew members on the Neptune:

Find A Grave memorial numbers:

Joseph Daniel Beczek AD2 - 2nd Mechanic

Richard Newton Brown AT3 - 1st Technician

Wilbur Duvall Cooper Ensign - Navigator

Walter J Hanzo LT.(jg) - Pilot

Gerald Martin Hazlett Ensign - Co-pilot

Paul Martin Koehler AM2 - passenger on flight

Michael Joseph Maksymon AT2 - 1sr Radioman

Robert John Staples ADC

Wilbur D Cooper