Pvt. Charles S. Cooper

Charles S. Cooper Jr. was excited to receive a Purple Heart in Iraq from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. But the attack that earned him the award, and left him with shrapnel wounds to his face and arm, changed his perspective. Once eager to leave his hometown, "he just said he wanted to walk the safe streets of Jamestown again," said his brother, Patrick. Cooper, 19, of Jamestown, N.Y., was killed April 29 by a bomb blast in Baghdad. He was based at Fort Drum. Charles was the youngest of the six siblings, and his father remembers happy moments hunting and fishing with his son. He decided to join the Army after graduating from high school in 2004 "to make a better life for himself," his brother said. Cooper had been in Iraq for only a few months and received a Purple Heart just weeks before his death. "He got hit with a little shrapnel, and he got right back up and went back at his job," said Cooper's father, Charles S. Cooper Sr. "I'm so proud of him." Cooper is also survived by his mother, Sherry Weaver.