1st Lieutenant Cooper Hawkes is the Squadrons' best shot.
He is an In-Vitro who, although surly and uncommunicative at first, comes to think of the 57th as his family.

We first see Cooper being chased through an abandoned building site in Philadelphia by a group of four youths. They corner him in a delapidated building and try to hang him, simply because he is a 'Tank'. He manages to break free, and turns the tables on his attackers, but is arrested by bigoted police even though only trying to defend himself.

His punishment is to be sentenced to the US Marine Corps by a (presumably Natural Born) judge and this is where he first meets his family-to-be at Loxley Training Base, Alabama.

It is only after a training mission to Mars that Hawkes starts to gel with his fellow officers, and even then he can be a right-Royal PITA at times!
When the newly-trained Marines are issued their planes and let loose on the enemy, Hawkes acquits himself well, despite his bad attitude and a tendency to insubordination.
However this tendency actually saves the day during their first battle, and helps to earn the newly formed squadron citations for bravery.

Eventually Cooper learns to trust, respect and even like his Squadron-mates, managing at last to find a place where he belongs.

Rodney (or Rod) Rowland was born in Orange County, California on February 20th 1964.
He started out as a model, but is also proving to be a very talented actor. As well as his role as Cooper in SAaB, he has been seen as another Marine Lieutenant, Bobby Griffin, in the first series of "Pensacola: Wings of Gold."
Mr Rowland has also appeared in an episode of "Welcome to Paradox", the "X-Files" episode "Never Again" and on the big screen with a supporting role in the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie "The 6th Day."

To find out more about Mr. Rowland and his career to date, go to The Unofficial Rod Rowland Site or you could visit his entry in the IMDb