Cooke, Eric
When
1st Sgt. David Henry heard Command Sgt. Maj. Eric Cooke had been
killed outside the wire in Iraq, he wasn’t surprised.
Cooke was that kind of sergeant major,
Henry said. He was a leader who went where his soldiers went and
took the risks they took even though he didn’t have to.
“He didn’t have to be out there with
soldiers manning checkpoints, checking on soldiers during cordon
searches,” said Henry, 1st Squadron, 1st U.S. Cavalry Regiment
rear detachment noncommissioned officer in charge at Büdingen.
“But that’s what he liked to do.”
Cooke, 43, was brigade command
sergeant major for the 1st Armored Division’s 1st Brigade, based
at Friedberg, Germany. He died Dec. 24 near Samarra — north of
Baghdad — after his vehicle hit an improvised bomb. Cooke, of
Scottsdale, Ariz., is survived by his wife, Dagmar; his father,
Cord Cooke; his mother, Georgia Cooke; and brothers Cordy and
Josh Cooke.
A memorial is scheduled in the Old
Ironsides Theater, Ray Barracks, Friedberg, and Cooke will be
buried Monday at Arlington National Cemetery.
News of Cooke’s death stunned soldiers
at Büdingen, where Cooke had been a command sergeant major in
2002, said Warrant Officer 2 Jeremy Walkley, 30, D Troop, 1/1
Cav, 1st AD. “He’s the first face you see when you think of 1/1
Cav,” said Walkley, adding that he couldn’t think of a person
whose loss would be more widely felt through both the military
and German communities.
As 1/1 Cav command sergeant major,
Cooke was regarded as the definitive soldier, Walkley said. “You
knew he was a sergeant major — even if you saw the guy in
civilian clothes.”
A commanding, inspiring presence and
quiet authority defined Cooke’s 25-year career, Henry said.
“I never once [heard] him raise his
voice,” Henry said. “You did something for Sgt. Maj. Cooke
because you knew it was the right thing to do.”
Cooke’s death triggered a torrent of
emotion and superlatives — unusual in the stoic Army culture.
“To all the troops who served with him
in Iraq, in Büdingen and throughout his career, please take time
to shed some tears [you won’t be alone] and remember to pray for
the Cooke family,” Ricky A. Clark, a retired 1/1 Cav sergeant
first class living in Texas, wrote to Stars and Stripes. “Then
hold your head high, knowing you served with the best!”
“He was such a good man, a true friend
and an excellent soldier,” Col. Mike Tucker said in a statement
to Stars and Stripes. “He earned the soldiers’ respect through
his actions,” stated Tucker, executive officer for the USAREUR
commander, and former commander of the 1st AD’s 1st Brigade.
“There was nothing he wouldn’t do for
another person, no matter how much time and effort it took. He
was the absolute best CSM I had ever known and one of the best
people I have ever worked with,” he stated.
“I loved him like a brother.”
Cooke had a stellar military career, a
total reversal of fortune from his youth. He joined the Army
after getting into trouble in Arizona, Henry said, who’s known
Cooke since 1996. “He joined because he decided his life was
headed down the wrong road.”
“The U.S. Army did for that boy what I
could not have done for him,” his mother, Georgia Cooke, told
The Associated Press. “They turned him into a man, and a man
among men. …”
During his 25-year career, Cooke
earned two degrees. He held every leadership position from tank
commander/section sergeant and platoon leader to command
sergeant major, according to a USAREUR news release. His
decorations included the Bronze Star Medal.
He was with the 1/1 Cav when it
crossed the Sava River into Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995,
Henry said. He did an Stabilization Force peacekeeping rotation
to Bosnia, and a Kosovo Force rotation to Kosovo.
Cooke spent a year at Eagle Base in
Bosnia, “and he told me it was the worst year of [his] life, but
wouldn’t have traded it for the world,” Henry said. For Cooke,
being in the Army was enough, his friend said.
“He told me, ‘That’s all I know, being
a soldier.’ ”
He was, at heart, the definitive
cavalry soldier.
“Stetsons, cigars and spurs,” Henry
said.
Soldiering, especially with the
cavalry, “was what he was meant to do,” Walkley said.
What defined Cooke was his personal
style — energetic and outgoing — and his management style,
accentuating compassion and team-building, say those who knew
him. He had been known to salvage the careers of soldiers “who
had made horrendous screw ups,” if he thought they were worth
giving second chances, Walkley said. “He put himself in their
shoes.”
In Iraq, Cooke stressed the importance
of armored, or “up-armed,” Humvees — of adding armor and steel
plates, “anything to protect his soldiers,” Henry said.
Henry last saw Cooke on Dec. 19 when
the senior soldier came to his friend’s change of responsibility
ceremony before Henry returned to Büdingen Dec. 23.
“He was being considered for [1st AD]
sergeant major,” Henry said. “He didn’t have to do that.”
As they smoked cigars after the
ceremony, Henry said they discussed their retirement plans.
Cooke’s plan was to retire to Knoxville, Tenn., if he didn’t
make division sergeant major, Henry said.
Instead, Cooke was the third soldier
from Büdingen to die in Iraq.
“You’ve got to hope there’s a reason
for this,” Henry said. “At the end of the day, you have to say
the Iraqi people have a democratic government. And Sgt. Cooke
helped to keep a lot of ugliness off American soil.
“He was great man,”
Henry said. “My best friend.”
