Uncle Sam knew him as Corporal Peter Brown Cook Jr., a soldier.
He was an Army man, First Battalion, Eighth Calvary Regiment, A Company.
A lot of titles, numbers and names.
But back home in Yazoo City, he was simply Pete.
A young man who was kind and likable. He was a track star, a heck of a runner. People still talk about how he could run.
He was a dark-haired, tall and lanky, boy who loved to read comic books.
He was Pete Cook...a hero.
“He was just a kid when they shipped him over to Vietnam,” said Jesse Fowler, Pete’s cousin. “He was killed within weeks after getting over there. Pete should have never been sent over there. He was barely out of high school. He was still a kid.”
Pete was born on Nov. 11, 1947. He was raised in Yazoo City in a small house next to the railroad tracks on Jackson Avenue. And like most local boys, his days were carefree and simple.
“Pete was a regular Yazoo City boy,” Fowler said. “He lived there his whole life. Everybody liked Pete because he was just a normal guy.”
“Pete was full of life,” added Ardis Russell, Pete’s classmate.
Patricia Ramirez Faircloth was six years younger than Pete. But he was her “favorite cousin.”
“When I was very little and in a bad mood, you teased me by holding me in your arms and kissing me over and over, which made me laugh,” she wrote on a memorial.
Pete showed her how to play stick ball in front of his house.
“You gave us your model cars when your collection got too big,” Faircloth added. “You shared your Pepsi with peanuts. You gave us comic books.”
Wallace Russell, Pete’s classmate, said Pete was a fun-loving boy who excelled in athletics.
Fowler agrees that his cousin Pete was an athlete.
“He would run all over Yazoo City,” Fowler said.
“He excelled in all sports, football, baseball, basketball, track,” Ardis Russell said.
Wallace Russell said his running skills helped Pete out in others ways as well.
“When he got into trouble with the tough guys, he wouldn’t fight,” Wallace Russell said. “He would start laughing and run. He would make them try to catch him.”
They never could.
Wallace Russell also remembers seeing Pete on television when he ran in the state track meet in 1965.
“Pete led the mile run until he faded,” Wallace Russell said. “The camera was on Pete, and I was rooting him on.”
Pete also played basketball on the B-Team in high school.
“As a whole, the Indians were big, strong rebounders and showed great hustle and spirit, throughout the season,” Pete’s yearbook reads. “This scrappy team was led by Ray Heidel, Colin Campbell, Bill Mashburn, Bob Walker and Pete Cook.”
And Pete put his heart and soul into every sport he played.
“Pete would be shooting basketball sometimes when it was so hot that nobody else was shooting basketball,” Wallace Russell remembers.
But Pete’s life took a turn when the Vietnam War entered his world. He was drafted in 1967.
Pete’s life was no longer about track meets, basketball games, comic books or Pepsi with peanuts.
He was given a gun and sent to war.
“Less than six months after he was drafted, he was sent through training and sent over there,” Fowler said. “As soon as he was sped through training, he was gone. Those boys were not prepared for that war. They sent kids over there to die. Pete was one of those kids.”
Pete was sent to Vietnam on June 28, 1967. He died four months later on Oct. 6, 1967 in the Binh Dinh Province in South Vietnam.
“He stepped on a land mine,” Fowler said. “It took a while to verify that it was him...they found his dog tag. That is when they knew.”
Pete was only 19 when he was killed in action.
“Pete’s death really affected me,” Fowler said.
Pete is buried at Larkin Sunset Gardens Cemetery in Sandy, Utah. He moved there right before he was drafted.
Pete was a star athlete. He was the kind of person who took time with his little cousins, playing with them. He would get lost in the world of comics. He was determined, likable and eager to laugh.
“Pete is always remembered at our high school reunions,” Wallace Russell said.
But Pete was also a hero who fought for his country and made the ultimate sacrifice.
He may have simply been “Pete,” but he was really so much more.
Pete’s name is located on The Moving Wall, Panel 27E, Row 58.
