Cooper served a two-year tenure at RAF Lyneham (to March 2000), in which she was in charge of base support and where her staff provided operational support for troop movements to Sierra Leone. Thereafter she was stationed at Joint Services Command and Staff College (JSCSC) at Shrivenham, which relocated there in the same year. Cooper was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2001 New Year Honours.