Mom honors slain son with gifts to others

Eric Cooke grew up in north Tempe near Papago Park and loved to play on the red rocks near his home.

Fallen sergeant's kin feel pain, pride

Iraq casualties from the East Valley

When he slipped out of his mother's sight, she could always find him in his favorite nook.

"He loved adventure," Georgia Cooke said last week from her home in Oregon. "He loved climbing the mountains and hiding in little nooks."

She said that love of adventure continued into adulthood. Eric Cooke, who later moved to Scottsdale, joined the Army at age 17 and served as a command sergeant major in Iraq until his death at age 43 on Christmas Eve 2003.

Cooke is one of 16 troops from the East Valley who has died in Iraq since the war startedfive years ago on March 19, 2003.

Georgia Cooke said the five-year anniversary of the war means remembering her son, who served 25 years in the Army.

She said one way she remembers her son is by sending gifts to soldiers or others affected by war on her son's birthday.

"Last year on his birthday we gave two oxen to a village in Uganda," she said. "The rebels had killed all the livestock, and they had no way to plow their farms."

She said she also has donated money to other soldiers in Iraq in her son's name.

"He would say the United States of America is the greatest place on Earth," she said. "I miss him very much."

Cooke said she told her son that he did not need to go to Iraq.

"He could pass this one by," she said. "He had been in the first Iraqi war."

But he told her that if the war was important to the United States, it was his mandate.

"I am so grateful that I had a man of honor as a son," she said.

Her son was in charge of 3,000 soldiers and formed many relationships during his service, she said.

He was based in Friedberg, Germany, where he met his wife of 23 years. During the 1991 Persian Gulf War, he received a Bronze Star.

Eric Cooke died in Baghdad after his convoy vehicle was struck by a makeshift bomb. His mother said that one day she would like to go to Camp Cooke, an operating base in Baghdad named in her son's honor.

Until then, she said, she will continue to honor her son through her donations and yearly birthday presents.

"I love talking about my son, Eric," she said. "It's important that we remember these soldiers."