The July 4th week of 2005 was an exciting time for me. My parents came to
visit me for the first time since my graduating Basic Military Training for
the United States Air Force. I had gone home for Christmas and several other
times, of course, but this was the first time I could show them my base, my
house, my plane I fly on, and all my friends I always talked about. During
that time, my family did some sight seeing. We are all history junkies and
so we wanted to hit every spot we possibly could while they were here. One
of the places we actually got to go turned into a rather interesting trip
and brought a book I bought there to life. Fort Sill is a still functioning
U.S. Army base just north of Lawton, Oklahoma.
Let me give you a little history lesson. Fort Sill is the final resting
place of some of the most famous Native Americans in United States history
including Quannah Parker and Geronimo. It is also very much still like it
was when the author of my book, Forrestine “Birdie” Cooper Hooker was
stationed there with her father and the Tenth. Instead of just reading about
history, this time you get live Birdie’s life as she introduces you to
famous names of the frontier life of an Army officer. Her father, Captain
Charles Cooper, was the only commander to receive the only real and
unconditional surrender during the Geronimo campaign. That and many other
stories of Birdie's life are relived through her wonderfully articulated way
of taking you back to then.
She starts the book off with the marriage of her parents, a young woman
marrying a second lieutenant after they fall in love through writing letters
during the Civil War as he defended Washington and took part in Gettysburg.
Then came the three Cooper children as the family is shuffled from fort to
camp following her father’s career as an officer in the Tenth U.S. cavalry,
which was made up of entirely black soldiers or perhaps more famously known
as the Buffalo soldiers. Birdie and her family encounter many trials and
triumphs as the Tenth struggles to keep the peace between Native Americans
and the settlers in the early days of the frontier, today’s Oklahoma, Texas,
Arizona, and Kansas. The book ends with the capture of Geronimo after his
eluding the Army for two years successfully.
I’m a sucker for real life history stories that are really well written. I
like first-hand accounts a lot more then I like someone else writing about
someone that died a long time ago. Although this book was delayed in getting
out, because simply no one knew she had written about her life until after
the manuscript was found after she died. Birdie Cooper becomes a companion
as she invites you along instead of an author and her writing was so easy to
follow. Sometimes I got names mixed up, but she kept me straight most of the
time. This was an excellent book and I am so glad I didn’t just put it back
down like I had with so many other books in the gift shop of Fort Sill that
day. With her help, not only did I visit Fort Sill, but I was stationed
there along with her family. This is how a history book should be.
Title: Child of the Fighting Tenth |
8/24/2005
