Local soldier dies in Afghanistan

Army Pvt. Nicholas S. Cook of Hungry Horse died March 7 in combat in Afghanistan. He was a member of the airborne infantry.

Cook, 19 died in Konar province of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire, according to the Department of Defense.

He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, Camp Ederle, Italy.

Raised by his grandparents Chuck and Kathy Taylor of Hungry Horse, Cook graduated from Columbia Falls High School in 2008.

Kathy Taylor said they were notified of his death on Sunday.

“They came to the house,” she said. “We had a sergeant and the chaplain from the Kalispell Police Department.”

Taylor said her grandson was scheduled to come home for a visit in just two weeks. He had plans to go to Alaska to snowboard for a few days.

“He lived to snowboard,” she said. “He also really loved what he was doing in the Army.”

Cook was born in California but joined his grandparents in Hungry Horse in 1992. They received custody in 1993.

From an early age, Cook was an excellent athlete, according to his grandmother.

“He started sports at 4 with T-ball,” she said. “He played baseball until he was 12 or 13.”

Taylor said Cook participated in wrestling until ninth grade and played football until 10th grade when he was injured.

His Columbia Falls High School football coach Troy Bowman said Cook played on the junior varsity squad as a running back, wide receiver and a defensive back. He said Cook’s season was cut short by an eye injury.

Bowman also had Cook in sophomore physical education.

“He was athletic — small in stature — but he really seemed to get after it when we played sports in P.E. or football,” Bowman said. “I was deeply saddened to learn of his death in Afghanistan. I’m proud that he served his country and I feel for his family.”

Bowman described Cook as an overall good kid. He said he knows that when he was given an order he would have carried it out.

“He was gung-ho that way,” he said.

 According to his grandmother, Cook spent many happy hours on his snowboard.

“He started at about 9, I think,” she said. “He loved Big Mountain.”

Cook also snowboarded in Europe in the Alps.

Taylor said he became interested in the Army after high school and joined for the opportunity to travel as well as learn and “grow up.”

He enlisted in April 2009, went to boot camp and then airborne school at Fort Benning, Ga.

Cook came home on leave last September.

It was the last time his grandparents had a face-to-face visit.

“He was here for two weeks,” she said. “It was a good visit. He got to see lots of his friends and he enjoyed it.”

Taylor said that Cook loved the Army. On that September trip home, he told them that he planned to re-enlist and make a career of the military.

“He really liked jumping out of airplanes,” she said.

When his leave ended, Cook traveled to Georgia to rejoin his group, then left for his duty station in Italy. He knew at that time that he was headed for Afghanistan.

Taylor said her grandson didn’t share much of what he was involved in on the ground.

“If it would scare grandma, he wouldn’t tell me,” she said.

Taylor said that she and Cook were often on “the same wavelength,” sending each other e-mail messages every two or three days. He talked about the weather and told her it wasn’t as cold as the Flathead Valley.

“When it snowed, it made him homesick,” she recalled.

Cook had a MySpace page where he confirmed much of what his grandmother said. He wrote that he was in Afghanistan for 12 to 15 months and would then return to Italy.

“Not much planned passed that, just taking things as I go,” he wrote on his page.

Cook wrote that he was excited about his life and his work when he filled in his MySpace profile.

“I’ve been living in Italy for the past few months. It’s pretty cool to just open my eyes and realize what all I’m doing in life right now. Not many people can say that they are as stoked about life in general and what they are doing right now. I sure as hell can. I’m doing more now and have seen more already than I ever thought I would.”

Cook also wrote about the thrill of snowboarding or “shreddin’ the pow(der)” in his lingo. He was looking forward to tackling the Alps once again.

Cook wrote of shaking beyond the point of functioning and the butterflies in his stomach carrying him into an adrenaline rush. He said it was when he felt most alive.

“Bein’ on a mountain with that board strapped on is home to me.”

His body was returned to the United States to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Tuesday.

Columbia Mortuary was selected to receive his body and work with the family on funeral arrangements. Taylor said Wednesday that she was in the process of making those plans and writing his obituary.

 She said she retains many positive memories of her grandson.

“He was happy, an athlete and highly intelligent,” she said.

Along with his grandparents, Cook is survived by his mother, Charlotte Martin of New Jersey, his father, Jeff Cook, of California, brother Christopher Taylor of Hungry Horse and sisters Melody Cook and Jacklynn Sisney, both of California.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.