In 1998, he was selected as the operations officer for the 410th Flight Test Squadron and performed developmental flight testing of the F-117 Nighthawk [REF].
At approximately 10 a.m. on the morning of March 25, 2009, an F-22A piloted by Cooley crashed at Harper Dry Lake, near Lockhart, California about 35 miles northeast of Edwards Air Force Base [REF].