I thoroughly enjoyed working with Hal and was honored to call him my friend. In my opinion Hal was a rock star among analysts. His sense of humor was unique and really bloomed as he and I would travel together. I will miss him.
Chuck Gagnon
This is a sad day indeed. I served proudly with Hal Cook at Keflavik, Readiness Training Facility Centerville (A3 course), and COSL over the years. Hal was a true friend and shipmate to Kathy and I. We remained in touch over the years through his membership in the IUSS CAESAR Alumni Association where he was very active - even set up his own "sweat shop" in Texas and helped us mail out nearly 1,000 patches and decals a few years back. That was Hal! In recent correspondence, Hal informed me that the Veteran's Administration had finally, after many years of negotiation approved his full disability for injuries suffered while on active duty. I agree with his family: Hal Cook was a "Gentle Giant". He will be missed by many. Fair Winds and Following Seas, shipmate!
Strange as it may be in a very small community like SOSUS was I never met or was stationed with Hal. I enjoyed his posts, and from that I will miss him.
RIP Shipmate. Condolences to all of his family members.
Chuck & Linda Cable
I, like Chuck Cable, never was fortunate enough to have either met or have been stationed with Hal. But, it is quite evident from reading various posts on this site over the years, and to know (as Jim Donovan said), Hal was a true team player who positively impacted many lives over the years. I received one of the IUSS patches that Hal mailed to me - proudly displayed on my Navy leather jacket.
My sincere condolences to his family. I will be sure to lift a toast to him, as he wished, and will keep his family in my prayers that they might have comfort in their time of grief.
Great guy with a great sense of humor. He never took himself too seriously, but he also got the job done and done right. Sorry to see him go. Here is to you, my friend.
Dona and I have many great memories of Hal that included his great sense of humor and many outings at the beach in Hawaii. Of course I can't forget the TAD trips with him. He always made me look good. A true professional. We will truly miss him. Rest well my friend.
I was lucky to serve in what many consider the very best years of our system (71-92) and I can say without the slightest reservation that our friend ran the very best watch I ever saw.
I relieved Hal (and he me...big pressure) many, many times and his turnover was the very best I ever got. Mike Christy was close.
His turnover (and the rest of his watch section) was so good that I trained my section to return the favor.
Those of you that lived through the terror of first daywatch's CO's brief at Kef can relate. Hal made me look good on so many occasions when I wasn't.
I will never forget his boundless energy and love of our system and young OT's.
Learned so much from Hal from indepth analysis in QA at COSP to playing cricket/301 every lunch break. Always a story and a laugh. Rest in peach old friend.
Very sad indeed. As posted by others, Hal was a fine OT and friend.
Hal made up some practice questions for me prior to the E7 exam in 1979 and lo-and-behold if those questions didn't show up almost verbatim on the exam. I thanked Hal then, and I thank him now.
I just checked in here and saw 2 unrelated items, one the shipmates article and then this notification of the passing of Hal Cook. It was the shipmates article and Irv's reply which brought a smile of memory to my lips because it was Hal Cook (then an OT3 or OT2) and Bob Smith who sent me off looking for fallopian tubes to repair some of our gear.....in Bermuda 1970 :) Thanks for keeping in touch through the years, Hal....here's to you.....good hunting, old son......you'll be missed.
Just read your post and couldn't resist replying. I did two tours in BDA (Dec 66- Dec 69 and June 74-June 77), so it looks as though I missed Hal and yourself in there somehow. Somehow, the name Bob Smith rings a bell. I am wondering if he was at BDA during my first tour? Anyway, I thought the "fallopian tube" thing at Pac Beach was an isolated incident......guess not !! I have lots of very fond memories of Bermuda. My wife and I, along with our youngest daughter (who was born there in 1974) took a cruise ship back there last year - a lot has changed, and a lot has stayed the same.
Irv
I arrived in Bermuda as an STGSA on 04 Dec 69 along with two other classmates from behind the green doors at FSS Key West, Marc Reed and Dan Miller, so one of the three of us may have been your replacement. We were not rushed onto the watch bill, instead spending a few months on lower base working in the chow hall, barracks, etc. before starting actual watches up on Tudor Hill, so you were long gone before I was ever on the watch bill. When I did go there though, I was assigned to Duke Kozak's section. My memory from that far back is often inaccurate, but I believe Bob Smith (one of them loud Texans from Waco TX who drove a little blue English Ford station wagon with wood grain exterior panels) or Steve Dickey was our plotter. Naturally, a person usually was reassigned to different watch sections as needs arose, so names and faces changed. Hal was there at the time, though I have no idea when he might have arrived. Back in those days, the draft was still on, so most of the people I met served one tour and were gone, but some names that I recollect were Buck Wasserman, Glenn Ahner, I used to hear stories about a Dennis Wannabo, and yes I saw your name on documents from days prior to my arrival there.
Very sad news. Hal was one of the best and the letter he wrote is testament to that. He lived life on his terms and was happy to have known all of us. We are all better for having known him. I was going to delete his email address from my address book but have decided not to. I shall keep it there as a great memory of a great individual. My thoughts and prayers are with his family. I look forward to the day when we all will be reunited at our final duty station. RIP Hal!
I haven't been on here for a while and was saddened to read about Hal's passing. He was a unique, no nonsense kind of guy who called it as he saw it! RIP, Hal....
I see that another great OT has passed. Hal and I were in the same class in "AAA" school in 1980 (with OT2 Jim Donovan as one of our instructors) and in addition to being a superb analyst he was also great fun to be around.
This is quite the shock because it was only several weeks before that he sent me an email saying that he had finally won his appeal with VA after many years of perseverance and would be receiving a large back pay settlement from them.
I imagine that he is still "standing the watch" as I type this.