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As chief of equipment readiness with the 1st Corps Support Command (Airborne) based at Logistics Support Area Anaconda in Balad, Iraq, Army Major James Hooper ’92 managed over 30,000 ground and ground combat systems for the Army and Marine Corps. He and his staff section also oversaw all repair parts needed to sustain these systems, including about 80,000 different items worth $100 million located in warehouses throughout Iraq.

“The sheer scope of this operation was the most challenging part – trying to maintain a high level of detail, down to the individual vehicle or M1 tank or Bradley Fighting Vehicle, while still maintaining an accurate view of the consolidation of it all,” he says. “Doing the analysis to find the big problems and then fixing those problems through the application of resources from the individual unit level to the national level or shifting resources in-country [was most important].”

Hooper’s group had to perform well to ensure that commanders at all levels did not have to adjust plans or accept additional risk because of the readiness of their equipment.

“If my section did its job right, then what we did was transparent to the units we supported,” he says.

Like most units, Hooper served a one-year deployment in Iraq, returning on Oct. 30.

“It took about a month to adjust to being home again,” he says. “I have since been reassigned to the 82d Airborne Division, also at Fort Bragg.”

Hooper has moved to a new duty position as a battalion executive officer in the 4th Brigade of the 82d Airborne Division and is scheduled to serve in Afghanistan or Iraq next year.

“I’m looking forward to the new assignment — with the possible exception of jumping out of airplanes again at age 35,” he says.

A chance meeting with an ROTC instructor at Lafayette helped launch Hooper’s 13-year military career and provided him with a three-year academic scholarship. After the Army selected him for active duty, he decided to serve four years to pay back the government for its financial assistance. Since then, he has served in Maryland, Hawaii, Virginia, Washington, Maine, Michigan, and Alabama. He is stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C. with the 1st Corps Support Command (Airborne). Lafayette’s diversity taught the A.B. engineering graduate to be an effective leader in the Army.

“The diversity of the student body at Lafayette was much different from anything I experienced prior to that,” he says. “I think [it] taught me to later work successfully with and lead soldiers with such a wide variety of backgrounds. Lafayette was really the first time in my life where I had to interact and learn to work with students from all over the country and the world, with different socioeconomic roots, goals, and reasons for being at Lafayette. Being a student, being an ROTC cadet, and living in a fraternity were all experiences that prepared me for the Army, which is really a microcosm of the country as a whole.”

The Lafayette connection proved that it is a small world when he encountered international affairs graduate 1st Lt. Lee Henkel ’96 on a flight from Iraq to Qatar. The two caught up on old times after Henkel recognized Hooper as a fellow alumnus when the major was briefing passengers on the flight’s administrative details. Henkel was serving \a platoon leader assigned to the 659th Engineer Company, 30th Engineer Brigade out of Spokane, Wash. Also based at Logistics Support Area Anaconda, he routinely led military convoys around the Balad area.

Categorized in: Alumni Profiles