Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2017 17:14:49 GMT -5
Full Name: Colonel Alvin Cooper
Aliases:
Avatar Photo: Ed Harris
Age: 50
Gender: Male
Appearance: Alvin stands at precisely 5'9", and is in good shape for a man his age. Additionally, he has bad scarring on his upper right arm and lower neck. Alvin wears the airforce ABUs with a borrowed Modular Tactical Vest. To top this off, he either wears an officer's cap when indoors, in which case he does not wear his tactical vest either, he wears a Enhanced Combat Helmet when outside.
Occupation (studies and job before the outbreak):
Hometown (city, state, country): Fort Worth, Texas USA
Relationships (relatives, friends,...):
Weapons (currently in possession):
As a primary weapon, Alvin carries an M4 with a vertical foregrip and an ACOG optic mounted on the weapon's sight rail. He carries five spare magazines for the weapon on his combat webbing.
Alvin carries an M9 Beretta as his sidearm, in a thigh holster. Alvin carries three spare magazines for the weapon.
It goes without saying that though he isn't extensively trained in it's combat use, Alvin carries a KA-BAR knife for a variety of purposes.
Items (clothing, backpacks, first-aid kits, etc...):
Mode of transportation:
Alvin makes use of an Oshkosh M-ATV Command variant with an M2HB in a CROWS (Crew Operated Weapon Station) for on base duties, and getting to locations that aren't far from the base. Typically, he prefers to drive himself but if driving to a close by off base location he has a driver assigned to him.
When heading off base, especially to visit one of the other allied bases in the area, Alvin prefers to make use of a borrowed US Marines UH-1Y Venom. The Venom is equipped with a pair of pintle mounted GAU/16A Machine Guns and a pair of APKWS II rocket pods.
List 3 or more good personality traits:
List 3 or more bad personality traits:
List 3 strengths:
List 3 flaws:
Describe your character's life before the Apocalypse: Alvin was born to Technical Sergeant George Cooper and Margaret Cooper, December 13, 1967. From his youngest days Alvin had a great fascination with aircraft. His dad, being one of the technicians who worked at Fort Worth, and security standards being a lot more lax in those days, Alvin spent a lot of time out of school at the air base. He was his parents only child, and as such his parents spent a lot of time with him. When not at work, his father would spend time with his family. There really wasn't much that he could ask for.
As he grew older, and his interest in aircraft grew, his parents knew it was only time before he had made his mind up on enlisting. His father may have gently nudged him along this process by taking him to meet his pilot friends and making sure that his airstrip visits were constant. Alvin's father also taught him to shoot very young, wanting to make sure that no matter his career choice he knew how to shoot. Come middle school and Alvin's already invested in a JROTC program.
Alvin was never the most popular kid at school, but he had a few friends from JROTC. He tended not to hang around the other kids, that was until he met Collin. He'd heard Collin play before, and if there's anything that he had a problem with it was seeing good talent go to waste. Alvin decided to see if he could befriend him, and show him that perhaps school wasn't as bad as he seemed to think it was. They formed a quick friendship, and one that Alvin treasures to this very day. Alvin certainly likes to think that he had a positive influence on his life.
High school came and went, and while he was glad to see Collin doing well he had his own career to focus on. That meant more time for AFROTC and preparing for the ASVAB and less socializing outside of it. With high school done, he went to North Texas University for their two year AFROTC program in exchange for a service commitment. Two years later and he was a fresh faced 1st Lieutenant in the United States Airforce, flying F-111F Aardvarks.
Come 1986 and Alvin's been deployed, calling his mother and father to say goodbye before he and his weapon systems officer board their aircraft and joined the rest of their unit, flying out to the United Kingdom where they would participate in the first strike on Libyan territory. 0200 hours, Libyan time, Alvin and his fellow pilots dropped seventy Mk 92 500 lb bombs on Tripoli airfield.
Throughout the operation Alvin's coordination of the other pilots including his squadron leader caught the attention of his higher ups. While several panics aborted their attacks, Alvin had helped keep his fellow pilots on target and on mission. This drew the attention of his higher ups, who saw to it that he was kept a close eye on. By '91, Alvin was a Captain in the United States Air Force, flying A-10 Thunderbolt IIs. His transfer to a squadron flying A-10s given his extensive experience flying the fighter-bomber variant of the F-111 was against his preference, but he didn't argue his transfer instructions.
Under his command, Alvin and his fellow pilots performed numerous airstrikes against Iraqi armored columns during the Gulf War, providing valuable close air support for US ground forces. Even though they missed the early stages of the action, and his old unit saw plenty of action during the early strikes against Iraqi airstrips he and his unit patiently bided their time until they could contribute to the war. When it was safe for the A-10s and ground attack helicopters to operate, Alvin and his men unleashed hell on the Iraqi armored vehicles, turning their T-72s to scrap.
So far Alvin's career had been everything he'd ever dreamed it to be. He and his pilots fought during Operation Enduring Freedom with honor, conducting multiple precision strikes against insurgent positions. On March 4th 2007, a lucky ZSU-23 round hit where the canopy met the armored fuselage while he was en route back from an air strike. The round was stopped, but fragments tore into his arm, and grazed the lower right portion of his neck. Injured, he managed to bring the plane down in one piece.
He was rushed to the hospital, and while in recovery he was offered a nice quiet retirement to live out the rest of his service. The offer was almost too good, it at his home town where his first love of aircraft was nurtured. Reluctant to leave his unit behind however, he put in a recommendation that his second in command be promoted in his place while he was transferred back stateside as the commander of the Air National Guard unit at Fort Worth.
Alvin was glad to see his parents again, after what seemed like a lifetime away from home. He was glad to hear that his friend Collin seemed to be doing well, and that life had treated him well so far with a job he enjoyed and a beautiful family. Things seemed to settle down over the next few years and Alvin though that perhaps the quiet life wasn't so bad. In 2011 Collin's wife passed away and things became difficult for his friend and family, but Alvin did his best to help. Not having much in the way of jobs on base, he did what he could to ensure that in the very least his friend and his family wouldn't go hungry.
What happened to your character on Outbreak Day?: The day the world died, started like any other day. That was of course, until word had come in over the command frequency to lock down the base. Alvin was suspicious, and upon talking to some of his contacts as well as the base commander at Shepard got word about some kind of contagion that was spreading fast. Alvin knew that law enforcement was incapable of handling the situation, and so after speaking to local police and the sheriff's department about what was happening, and dismissing their claims about the situation being under control, ordered an evacuation of civilians from unaffected areas.
Fortunately for them, there were unaffected areas, at least initially. Calling all hands on deck, Alvin informed Collin about the situation. Alvin was no good with civilians, this much he had learned during the past six years on base, so he brought Collin along to help smooth things over. The evacuation went about as smoothly as things could go, without of course what was the most bizarre riot they ever had to deal with, which turned into the Marines opening fire on unyielding crowds of mutilated looking civilians. Only later would they learn, to their horror that these were the infected.
Describe your character's life after the Apocalypse: With the command channels busy with frantic requests for orders and attempts to restore control of the situation, Alvin had made the decision with his counterpart from Sheppard Air Base and Collin who was effectively the de-facto leader of the civilians at this point to ride out this mess and await word or assistance from command. Six months later, nothing of the sort happened. There were few, if any incidents, due to roll call several times a day and a 'buddy' system being enacted. No one went anywhere without someone knowing.
Eventually the decision was made to attempt to reclaim and secure the area of White Settlement that hugged the south West corner of the base. Six weeks of hard urban combat later and they had managed to retake the area. The combat engineers immediately went about setting up walls and dug deep concrete lined trenches to ensure any dead that were attracted ended up in there, and were unable to pose a problem to anyone.
Collin decided that they should rename it, to build morale and give the people hope the name New Fort Worth was coined. Engineering units cleared space for a new agricultural venture to solve their slowly escalating food problem. Of course, with the help of the engineers at the Lockheed Martin R&D facility the power problem was slowly solved using wind generators built using spare engine parts from the plant. Of course, spare solar panels scourged up from scavenging runs helped as well and the bases' generators were turned on when they were really needed.
The base transformed from a purely military and research facility to something resembling a small city. Despite his concerns about the large civilian population, Alvin was confident that with Collin seeing to that side of things and the support of Sheppard AFB they could create and secure a refuge from the horrors of what the world had become.
Aliases:
- Colonel Cooper (Those under his command)
- Al (Friends)
- Chipmunk man (Katlyn Hollingsworth, Collin's daughter)
Avatar Photo: Ed Harris
Age: 50
Gender: Male
Appearance: Alvin stands at precisely 5'9", and is in good shape for a man his age. Additionally, he has bad scarring on his upper right arm and lower neck. Alvin wears the airforce ABUs with a borrowed Modular Tactical Vest. To top this off, he either wears an officer's cap when indoors, in which case he does not wear his tactical vest either, he wears a Enhanced Combat Helmet when outside.
Occupation (studies and job before the outbreak):
- AFROTC graduate from University of North Texas
- 1st Lieutenant in the Air Force, during 1986 bombing of Libya
- Captain in the Air Force, during 1991 Gulf War Air Campaign
- Major in the Air Force, during 2000s' Operation Enduring Freedom.
- Colonel in the Air Force, base commander of Texas Air National Guard base at Forth Worth, Texas.
Hometown (city, state, country): Fort Worth, Texas USA
Relationships (relatives, friends,...):
- Margaret Cooper, Mother. Status: Alive
- Technical Sergeant, retired George Cooper, Father. Status: Alive
- Collin Hollingsworth, Closest and oldest friend. Status: Alive
- Colonel John Harper, base commander Sheppard Air Force Base, close friend and colleague. Status: Alive
As a primary weapon, Alvin carries an M4 with a vertical foregrip and an ACOG optic mounted on the weapon's sight rail. He carries five spare magazines for the weapon on his combat webbing.
Alvin carries an M9 Beretta as his sidearm, in a thigh holster. Alvin carries three spare magazines for the weapon.
It goes without saying that though he isn't extensively trained in it's combat use, Alvin carries a KA-BAR knife for a variety of purposes.
Items (clothing, backpacks, first-aid kits, etc...):
- Clothing: Alvin has several spare pairs of ABU, along with fresh Dress Uniform that is usually only worn on special occasions such as Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.
- Ammunition: Ammunition is reloaded on base from spent brass, and Alvin usually replenishes his ammunition supplies from the bases armory. He has a private arms locker in his quarters where he stores his quota of ammunition
Mode of transportation:
Alvin makes use of an Oshkosh M-ATV Command variant with an M2HB in a CROWS (Crew Operated Weapon Station) for on base duties, and getting to locations that aren't far from the base. Typically, he prefers to drive himself but if driving to a close by off base location he has a driver assigned to him.
When heading off base, especially to visit one of the other allied bases in the area, Alvin prefers to make use of a borrowed US Marines UH-1Y Venom. The Venom is equipped with a pair of pintle mounted GAU/16A Machine Guns and a pair of APKWS II rocket pods.
List 3 or more good personality traits:
- Optimistic: Alvin is something of an optimist, seeing the best in any situation. When the apocalypse hit, it's his optimism that led to him giving the order to rescue the civilians from the surrounding areas, seeing how they could salvage the situation.
- Astute Strategist: Alvin has a natural talent at planning military operations, the surrounding areas that have been retaken are a testament to this.
- Natural Leader: Alvin is a natural leader, possessing a natural ability to inspire those under his command to perform at their best through inspiration and through a lack of fear to lead by example.
List 3 or more bad personality traits:
- Devil May Care Attitude: Alvin's devil may care attitude has led some among the base's civilian populace to assume that he's negligent, and this has only served to widen the disconnect that he feels between himself and the civilians on base, save Collin who he's known for a very long time.
- Stubborn: When his mind's made up, tantamount to a miracle, nothing is going to change it. If he believes something is right he'll fight tooth and nail for it.
- Damn civies: Certainly appealing to the stereotype in this manner, being a career military officer, Alvin fails to understand many of the complaints and concerns that the base's civilian population seem to have.
List 3 strengths:
- Capable Marksman: Having completed air force basic training and passing with flying colors on his firearms training test, Alvin has kept his skills honed over the years. Additionally, he grew up around firearms and was taught to shoot very young. It's muscle memory for him.
- Highly Experienced and Well-Trained Pilot: Alvin passed flight training with flying colors and proved himself to be a fantastic combat pilot over several combat operations including but not limited to: the American bombing of Libya in 1986, the Gulf War air campaign and even Operation Enduring Freedom.
- Experienced Military Commander: Alvin has served as a unit commander during the aforementioned conflicts, and to great success, seeing him promoted through several officer ranks as a result. He's worked with or alongside much of the aircraft now stationed at the bases he oversees, and knows how to ensure they're used to their greatest potential.
- Not Getting Any Younger: At fifty years old, Alvin can't be as active as many of the younger soldiers and civilians. As he's known to say, "Speak up son, I'm not getting any younger you know."
- Pilot, Not A Soldier: Even though he has some combat training and has been trained in SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) he's not trained to the same extent as the marines on the base or the Air Force Combat Controllers, and as such can be a liability during any extended firefights.
- Diplomacy Is A Waste Of Time: Alvin sees negotiating with any groups that pose a threat to them as a waste of time. He believes that if they don't fall in behind them, or step aside, they pose a threat and that diplomacy is merely delaying the inevitable.
Describe your character's life before the Apocalypse: Alvin was born to Technical Sergeant George Cooper and Margaret Cooper, December 13, 1967. From his youngest days Alvin had a great fascination with aircraft. His dad, being one of the technicians who worked at Fort Worth, and security standards being a lot more lax in those days, Alvin spent a lot of time out of school at the air base. He was his parents only child, and as such his parents spent a lot of time with him. When not at work, his father would spend time with his family. There really wasn't much that he could ask for.
As he grew older, and his interest in aircraft grew, his parents knew it was only time before he had made his mind up on enlisting. His father may have gently nudged him along this process by taking him to meet his pilot friends and making sure that his airstrip visits were constant. Alvin's father also taught him to shoot very young, wanting to make sure that no matter his career choice he knew how to shoot. Come middle school and Alvin's already invested in a JROTC program.
Alvin was never the most popular kid at school, but he had a few friends from JROTC. He tended not to hang around the other kids, that was until he met Collin. He'd heard Collin play before, and if there's anything that he had a problem with it was seeing good talent go to waste. Alvin decided to see if he could befriend him, and show him that perhaps school wasn't as bad as he seemed to think it was. They formed a quick friendship, and one that Alvin treasures to this very day. Alvin certainly likes to think that he had a positive influence on his life.
High school came and went, and while he was glad to see Collin doing well he had his own career to focus on. That meant more time for AFROTC and preparing for the ASVAB and less socializing outside of it. With high school done, he went to North Texas University for their two year AFROTC program in exchange for a service commitment. Two years later and he was a fresh faced 1st Lieutenant in the United States Airforce, flying F-111F Aardvarks.
Come 1986 and Alvin's been deployed, calling his mother and father to say goodbye before he and his weapon systems officer board their aircraft and joined the rest of their unit, flying out to the United Kingdom where they would participate in the first strike on Libyan territory. 0200 hours, Libyan time, Alvin and his fellow pilots dropped seventy Mk 92 500 lb bombs on Tripoli airfield.
Throughout the operation Alvin's coordination of the other pilots including his squadron leader caught the attention of his higher ups. While several panics aborted their attacks, Alvin had helped keep his fellow pilots on target and on mission. This drew the attention of his higher ups, who saw to it that he was kept a close eye on. By '91, Alvin was a Captain in the United States Air Force, flying A-10 Thunderbolt IIs. His transfer to a squadron flying A-10s given his extensive experience flying the fighter-bomber variant of the F-111 was against his preference, but he didn't argue his transfer instructions.
Under his command, Alvin and his fellow pilots performed numerous airstrikes against Iraqi armored columns during the Gulf War, providing valuable close air support for US ground forces. Even though they missed the early stages of the action, and his old unit saw plenty of action during the early strikes against Iraqi airstrips he and his unit patiently bided their time until they could contribute to the war. When it was safe for the A-10s and ground attack helicopters to operate, Alvin and his men unleashed hell on the Iraqi armored vehicles, turning their T-72s to scrap.
So far Alvin's career had been everything he'd ever dreamed it to be. He and his pilots fought during Operation Enduring Freedom with honor, conducting multiple precision strikes against insurgent positions. On March 4th 2007, a lucky ZSU-23 round hit where the canopy met the armored fuselage while he was en route back from an air strike. The round was stopped, but fragments tore into his arm, and grazed the lower right portion of his neck. Injured, he managed to bring the plane down in one piece.
He was rushed to the hospital, and while in recovery he was offered a nice quiet retirement to live out the rest of his service. The offer was almost too good, it at his home town where his first love of aircraft was nurtured. Reluctant to leave his unit behind however, he put in a recommendation that his second in command be promoted in his place while he was transferred back stateside as the commander of the Air National Guard unit at Fort Worth.
Alvin was glad to see his parents again, after what seemed like a lifetime away from home. He was glad to hear that his friend Collin seemed to be doing well, and that life had treated him well so far with a job he enjoyed and a beautiful family. Things seemed to settle down over the next few years and Alvin though that perhaps the quiet life wasn't so bad. In 2011 Collin's wife passed away and things became difficult for his friend and family, but Alvin did his best to help. Not having much in the way of jobs on base, he did what he could to ensure that in the very least his friend and his family wouldn't go hungry.
What happened to your character on Outbreak Day?: The day the world died, started like any other day. That was of course, until word had come in over the command frequency to lock down the base. Alvin was suspicious, and upon talking to some of his contacts as well as the base commander at Shepard got word about some kind of contagion that was spreading fast. Alvin knew that law enforcement was incapable of handling the situation, and so after speaking to local police and the sheriff's department about what was happening, and dismissing their claims about the situation being under control, ordered an evacuation of civilians from unaffected areas.
Fortunately for them, there were unaffected areas, at least initially. Calling all hands on deck, Alvin informed Collin about the situation. Alvin was no good with civilians, this much he had learned during the past six years on base, so he brought Collin along to help smooth things over. The evacuation went about as smoothly as things could go, without of course what was the most bizarre riot they ever had to deal with, which turned into the Marines opening fire on unyielding crowds of mutilated looking civilians. Only later would they learn, to their horror that these were the infected.
Describe your character's life after the Apocalypse: With the command channels busy with frantic requests for orders and attempts to restore control of the situation, Alvin had made the decision with his counterpart from Sheppard Air Base and Collin who was effectively the de-facto leader of the civilians at this point to ride out this mess and await word or assistance from command. Six months later, nothing of the sort happened. There were few, if any incidents, due to roll call several times a day and a 'buddy' system being enacted. No one went anywhere without someone knowing.
Eventually the decision was made to attempt to reclaim and secure the area of White Settlement that hugged the south West corner of the base. Six weeks of hard urban combat later and they had managed to retake the area. The combat engineers immediately went about setting up walls and dug deep concrete lined trenches to ensure any dead that were attracted ended up in there, and were unable to pose a problem to anyone.
Collin decided that they should rename it, to build morale and give the people hope the name New Fort Worth was coined. Engineering units cleared space for a new agricultural venture to solve their slowly escalating food problem. Of course, with the help of the engineers at the Lockheed Martin R&D facility the power problem was slowly solved using wind generators built using spare engine parts from the plant. Of course, spare solar panels scourged up from scavenging runs helped as well and the bases' generators were turned on when they were really needed.
The base transformed from a purely military and research facility to something resembling a small city. Despite his concerns about the large civilian population, Alvin was confident that with Collin seeing to that side of things and the support of Sheppard AFB they could create and secure a refuge from the horrors of what the world had become.