Colonel Gordon Cooper is a "sucker for wild and wooly war stories and doesn't know enough about the history of World War II or Aeronautical engineering." At least this is what James Oberg would have us believe about Former Astronaut Colonel Cooper.

The reason that NASA's official spokespuppy comes out with this little comment about Colonel Cooper is because of one the stories in Colonel Coopers book, "Leap of Faith".

The story was one that was told to Colonel Cooper by Joaquin 'Jack' Keutner about V-1 and V-2 rockets during World War 2. Basically, Jack told Colonel Cooper about piloting V-1 rockets that were dropped from Junkers bombers to drop a warhead and then fly the rocket home to a base in France. Jack also related that at war's end there was a V-2 rocket sitting on a pad that was supposedly going to be launched and would reach New York on America's East Coast.

Initially when I read this thread on the UFO UpDates List this week, I thought that the story was interesting and the arguments that were brought up to counter the story made a lot of sense - although it is common knowledge that the Nazis were trying to make a V-2 that could get to New York. But then as I let it sink in a little, it dawned on me that Mr. Oberg wasn't taking a shot at the story that Gordon Cooper told us about in his book, but was in fact taking a shot at Gordon Cooper -- the person, and that not only made me a little angry, it also made me ask, why?

Why does Mr. Oberg seem to have some kind of personal vendetta against Colonel Cooper? Could it be because Gordon Cooper hasn't 'toed the line' and is telling tales 'out of school'? Let's review the facts a little about former NASA Astronaut, Colonel Gordon Cooper.

Leroy Gordon Cooper Jr., Colonel, United States Air Force Retired, was born March 6th, 1927. To his credit, he has earned or won:

The Air Force Legion of Merit
The Distinguished Flying Cross
The Distinguished Flying Cross Cluster
The NASA Exceptional Service Medal
The NASA Distinguished Service Medal
The USAF Command Astronaut Wings
The Collier Trophy
The Harmon Trophy
The John F. Kennedy Trophy

And that is just a sampling of some of the honours bestowed upon this gentleman.

Upon graduating in 1956 from The Air Force institute of Technology with a BSC in Aeronautical Engineering he spent a year at Edwards AFB and then was assigned as an Aeronautical Engineer and Test Pilot in the Performance Engineering Branch of the flight test division at Edwards. (Err…Mr. Oberg, this is the same man that you said doesn't know enough about aeronautical engineering?)

He has spent 222 hours in Space as pilot of the FAITH 7 spacecraft, which concluded operations on Project Mercury and as the Command Pilot of Gemini 5.

The problem that Mr. Oberg has with Colonel Cooper probably stems from the fact that Colonel Cooper has been one of the most vocal of the Former Astronauts in discussing things that he saw in space that he was not able to rationally explain and was told to keep quiet about.

As the official NASA spokes-puppy, it appears that Mr. Oberg would have us believe that Colonel Cooper is just another saucerhead and somehow slipped through the very rigourous physical and mental testing processes that NASA makes their astronauts take but Colonel Cooper's record shines through whatever mud James Oberg wants to sling at it… but that's just… my take on it.