T. J. Cooper was born in 1951 in South Dakota. She grew up listening to her dad talk about World War II and the Korean War. A genealogy researcher for more than 30 years and an avid World War II history buff, she grew frustrated by the lack of military records on men who served their country so valiantly. She compiled individual military records and founded the website MyVeteranFamily.com as a searchable database.

Cooper has also written “The Men of the USS Utah (BB-31/AG-16): The Forgotten Ship of Pearl Harbor” and several family genealogy books. She is a member of the Naval Historical Foundation and a friend of both the USS Arizona Survivors Association and the USS Utah Association. She lives and writes in Coon Rapids, MN.