Hungry Horse's fallen hero

"Bein' up on a mountain with that board strapped on is home to me. Shakin' beyond the point of functioning then just goin' for it. Amazing feeling. The best feeling possible is that moment when the butterflies in your stomach carry you into that adrenaline rush. Its freedom, its when you can feel most alive."

— Pfc. Nicholas Cook on his MySpace Web site

He was a daredevil. He loved to jump out of airplanes and snowboard, but he didn't much like playing football. He loved purple Skittles and chicken.

Those are just some of the fond memories friends and family have of Nicholas Cook.

Pfc. Cook, 19, was killed in action when insurgents attacked his unit with small arms in the Konar Province of Afghanistan on March 7.

He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, Camp Ederle, Italy, according to a Department of Defense press release. The province is in the northeast part of the country.

Cook enlisted with the Army last spring. After training, he went to Afghanistan a few days before Christmas.

Cook's grandparents, Kathy Taylor and her husband, Charles, raised the boy since the age of three, along with his older brother Chris, 23. Cook went to Canyon Elementary, Columbia Falls Junior High, and graduated from Columbia Falls High School in 2008.

"He was proud to be in the Army," Kathy Taylor said. "The economy was part of the drive. But he wanted to travel. He wanted to do something with his life."

"He loved jumping out of airplanes. He said the best feeling was the three seconds before you jump."

On Monday, Cook's body arrived in the Flathead. Dozens of friends gathered at the St. Richard's Catholic Church to recognize him as his body was transported to Columbia Mortuary.

Kris Kamerer knew Cook since he was a boy. He was friends with her son, Mike, who also enlisted in the military and served overseas on several tours with the U.S. Marine Corps.

"Nick died a hero," she said. "We'll never forget what he died for. He believed in what he was doing."

Growing up Cook played sports. He started T-ball at the age of four and was a Little Guy wrestler. He played football until he was a sophomore in high school. But he took a cleat to the face and that was enough football for him. But all in all, Taylor remembered him as an unfettered spirit.

"He was fun to raise," Taylor said.

What he really loved was the snow, the mountains.

"He loved to snowboard," Taylor said.

Friends did a video of Cook snowboarding in Hungry Horse, pulled by a snowmobile, doing flips over snow banks. It's called "Throwin' Down in the Canyon," and is listed on YouTube.

"He was outgoing and he cared about his friends and his grandparents," family friend Jeff Alderman said.

When he was stationed in Italy he was able to take some leave and snowboard in the Alps.

"He was stoked about that," Taylor said.

Taylor said they have an "adrenaline junky" family. His aunt, Beth Mueller, was also Army airborne. Other family members race at Raceway Park or they race go-carts.

But on Sunday, the news came. Taylor is a night supervisor at Canyon Foods. Her husband called her to come home.

When she saw the vehicle with government plates in the driveway she knew what had happened. It was an Army Sergeant and a chaplain from the Kalispell Police Department with the news of Cook's death.

A visitation is Friday from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Columbia Mortuary in Columbia Falls. The funeral service is Saturday at 1 p.m. at St. Richard's Catholic Church in Columbia Falls. Burial with full military honors will follow at Woodlawn Cemetery in Columbia Falls.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer has ordered that flags in Montana be flown at half-staff beginning Friday morning through sundown Saturday night in Cook's honor.