High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! USS Cooper (DD-695), a Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer, is the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Elmer Glenn Cooper, a naval aviator who died in a seaplane accident in 1938. The Cooper was launched 9 February 1944 by Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Kearny, N.J.; sponsored by Mrs. Elmer G. Cooper; and commissioned 27 March 1944, Commander J. W. Schmidt in command.