Marine awarded for combat invention

Marine awarded for combat invention

Staff Sgt. Craig S. Cooper received the Lambertsen award for operational invented a pocket-sized device that incorporated a crowbar claw and a wrench to help open blast doors on armored vehicles.
Don Bryan/The Daily News

September 20, 2011 5:25 AM
HOPE HODGE
Like many inventions, it began with an unsolved problem.

Deployed to Afghanistan with 2nd Marine Special Operations Battalion in 2010, Staff Sgt. Craig S. Cooper, a motor transport chief, found that armored vehicle blast doors on several of the personnel carriers were difficult to open from the outside in the event that they were hit and flipped or rolled over, which was not uncommon. While the vehicles were equipped with a tool that released all their doors, it was too large to carry and sometimes could not be reached if the armored transport was upside down.

“We came up with the idea to make one tool that would open up all the blast locks,” said Cooper, 38.

The result was simple, but effective: a pocket-sized device that incorporated a crowbar claw and a wrench. Cooper knew it would come through in a crisis, and in November, a crisis would prove him right.
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