Published: November 09, 2009 09:01 am      

Ft. Hood tragedy hits Stanly County

Sunday, November 8, 2009 — After surviving two tours of duty in Iraq, Matthew Cooke became a victim of the shooting at Ft. Hood, Tex. on Thursday afternoon when Major Nidal Malik Hason opened fire inside the Soldier Readiness Center around 1:30 p.m., killing 13 and wounding 30 more.

Cooke, 30, is a 10-year Army veteran, whose mother and step-father, Jerry and Diane Frappier, have lived in Norwood for the past 2 ½ years.

In a phone interview with Diane Frappier at 2:30 p.m. Friday, she gave the following account of her son's condition and the events of Thursday at Fort Hood.

Matthew had gone to the Soldier Readiness Center to have a blood workup done prior to his deployment to Afghanistan in January. He was asking for an extension considering that he had just returned from Iraq this past March and a year is the norm between deployments.

When Maj. Hason opened fire, Matthew's friend, who was standing in front of him, was shot in the head. Matthew dropped to the floor and was attempting to aid his friend when Maj. Hason came up behind him and shot him three times in the back. His friend was one of the 12 dead at the scene.

En route to the hospital, Matthew was conscious and asked the doctor onboard the ambulance to call his parents. He could not remember the phone number of Diane, but did that of his dad, Carl Cooke of New York. The doctor notified the father, who in turn called Diane.

“The doctor told Carl that Matthew had been shot in the back three times and was bleeding profusely and put his condition as serious,” Diane said.

Carl Cooke also called Matthew's wife Sarah, who was shopping and had heard nothing of the shootings. When she went to the hospital, she was not initially allowed in for the hospital was in lockdown. Later, a police escort took her inside briefly during Matthew's surgery, which lasted until midnight.

Following his surgery, Matthew went into a coma, but when Sarah was allowed back in at 10 a.m. Friday morning, he was out of the coma. As of Friday afternoon, he remained in critical condition in ICU.

At 1 p.m. Friday, Diane and Jerry were able to speak to Matthew in his room.

“He was able to get out 'maw'. You can't imagine how sweet that was for me to hear. I'm sure now that he's going to make it,” said a relieved Diane, who has yet to hear anything from the Army directly.

The lengthy surgery Diane believes has saved Matthew's life, but his injuries are life-changing at best. Matthew lost his bladder, a lot of his colon, and surgeons had to rebuild his intestines, but Diane says, “it's too early to worry about that now.”

Matthew and Sarah have a 14-month old son, Gabriel, and Matthew has a five-year old son, Zachary, from a previous marriage. Diane called Matthew and Zachary “best buddies” and said the pair were “together all the time” when Matthew was not deployed.

Matthew's sister, Kim, and her husband, Grady, left New York State at midnight driving straight to Texas when they received word that Matthew was in a coma. Jerry and Diane plan to travel to Texas at some point next week.

Matthew has another sister, Christy Cooke, who lives in Charlotte. The youngest sibling, Jennifer, is a MP in the New York National Guard. An older brother, David Frappier, died in the Air Force in 1987.