U.S. Army Specialist Michael Benjamin Cook Jr. was laid to rest in Agawam on Monday. He died in a rocket attack in Iraq on June 6.
West Springfield, 6/26/11, Staff Photo by John Suchocki - The casket of Spec. Michael Benjamin Cook Jr. is carried from services at St. Thomas Church on Pine St. by the Honor Guard. He is to be buried at the Veterans Cemetery in Agawam. Cook was killed in action June 6th in Iraq.WEST SPRINGFIELD - Specialist Michael Benjamin Cook Jr., 27, of Liberty Township, Ohio, was killed in action at a joint Iraqi-US base in Baghdad on June 6, 2011 serving during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The Massachusetts native's family and friends gathered in at St. Thomas Church in West Springfield on Saturday to remember the young man who will be laid to rest at the Veteran's Cemetery in Agawam.
Cook was killed along with Spc. Robert P. Hartwick, 20, of Rockbridge, Ohio; Spc. Emilio J. Campo Jr., 20, of Madelia, Minn.; Spc. Christopher B. Fishbeck, 24, of Victorville, Calif.; and Pfc. Michael C. Olivieri, 26, Chicago on June 6 when rockets slammed into a base in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad. The attack caused the largest, single-day loss of life for U.S. forces in Iraq in two years.
A full report will be published on MassLive.com later today and appear in Tuesday's edition of The Republican.