Hungry Horse soldier killed in Afghanistan

A 19-year-old Hungry Horse man was the 41st Montanan soldier to die in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Pvt. Nicholas Cook was killed March 7 during an ambush in Konar province in Afghanistan when his unit was attacked by insurgents by small-arms fire.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer ordered national and state flags be flown at half-staff on March 19-20.

Cook joined the Army in April 2009 and had been in Afghanistan for about two months. He was scheduled to return on leave next week.

"Nick liked the Army," said his grandmother, Kathy Taylor, who raised him since he was three.

Cook was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team at Camp Ederlie, Italy. While there, he snowboarded in the Alps and jumped out of airplanes and off bridges.

A 2008 graduate of Col-um-bia Falls High School, where he played football up to his sophomore year, Cook frequently snowboarded at Whitefish Mountain Resort, and it became his passion.

An honor guard of Mon-tana National Guard soldiers met Cook's body when it arrived at Glacier Park Inter-national Airport on Monday.

Funeral services will take place at St. Richard's Catholic Church in Columbia Falls on Saturday, March 20, at 1 p.m.