Jason “CAS” Cooper grew up in Kent Washington, a suburb just south of Seattle.  His father was a mechanic and his mother a house-keeper and babysitter.  He was the first person on either side of his family to attend a university and earn a college degree.

Jason played sports in High School but his passion was always aviation.  At the age of five, Jason took a flight from Seattle to Los Angeles to visit family and he was hooked.  At fifteen, he started taking lessons for his private pilot certificate and soloed an airplane before he could legally drive. On his 17th birthday, he earned his private pilots license and after High School attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) in Prescott Arizona.

After a successful first year in Air Force ROTC at ERAU a series of events brought Jason back to Washington state. His mother was diagnosed with a debilitating disease and his parents were divorcing. Jason made the difficult decision to leave ERAU to help support his mother, working nights loading trucks while going to community college, Jason eventually got involved in local politics, helping with campaigns and local elected officials, he found himself working in the Washington State Legislature as a Legislative Assistant.  

Jason could not shake the call to aviation and figured he could live with “NO” but could not live with “WHAT IF?”  After three years in the legislature Jason started his own business doing political consulting and went back to school full-time so he could finish his degree and apply for a pilot slot with the United States Air Force (USAF).  He graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in political science, was accepted into the USAF and attended Officer Training School in May of 1998.

After Officer Training School Jason was assigned to Euro-Nato Joint Jet Pilot Training at Sheppard Air Force Base, where he was selected to fly the F-16.  Over the course of a 20 year career Jason served in multiple locations including a one year remote tour in Korea and two combat tours in Iraq.  He was a graduate of the United States Air Force Weapons School and finished his career in the Air Force as the Squadron Commander of the 425th Fighter Squadron at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona.

During the course of his career in the Air Force Jason adopted the mantra of humble, approachable and credible as the value system that drove the majority of his decisions.  Jason achieved great success both personally and professionally during his time in the Air Force, as well as adversity and loss, which helped shape who he is today. 

​

From learning how to follow mentorship as a young lieutenant to his role as a squadron commander, Jason had the opportunity to lead young airman to be survivable in combat, supported families through tragic loss, led multiple organizations, rewrote the command and control structure for one of six geographic combatant commanders and commanded a squadron of over three hundred individuals. The Be One Change One podcast is an opportunity for Jason to give back and continue to pass on lessons learned and build the next generation of young men to lead their families, communities and country forward.