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Re: Passing of OTACS Hal Cook

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.

Re: Passing of OTACS Hal Cook

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.

Re: Passing of OTACS Hal Cook

Doug -

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

Re: Passing of OTACS Hal Cook

Dee,
Did you post any of the pictures on BDA the site??
If not maybe you could e-mail a few to me.
Chuck

Re: Passing of OTACS Hal Cook

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.

Re: Passing of OTACS Hal Cook

Very sad indeed...bless you big guy. The world will miss your laugh and humor.

Re: Passing of OTACS Hal Cook

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!

JV

Re: Passing of OTACS Hal Cook

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....

Re: Passing of OTACS Hal Cook

Sad indeed. Hal was a great instructor, a great person.

Re: Passing of OTACS Hal Cook

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.

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