CONCORD, N.H. - The names of two New Hampshire natives killed in Iraq and Afghanistan are being added to the engraved names of those killed in action in the War Room at the University of New Hampshire.
The plaque bearing the names of Chief Warrant Officer Christopher Thibideau, formerly of Marlborough, and Army Private First Class Michael Cook, a Salem native, will be unveiled this week in the stained-glass lit room at the Memorial Union Building at the Durham campus.
Thibideau, a pilot, died May 28 when his helicopter crashed during combat operations in Afghanistan.
Cook died June 13 from injuries sustained in a June rocket attack on his base in Iraq. He had been in Iraq since November as an adviser to the Iraqi national police in eastern Baghdad.
At the time of his death, Thibideau and his family were living in Ohio. Cook’s family lives in Kansas.
The names will be among those of more than 2,300 New Hampshire men and women who have died in the armed forces since World War I.
Thibideau is the 20th soldier killed in Afghanistan to be memorialized in the War Room. Cook is the 30th to have died in Iraq.
The memorial was dedicated in 1953 by Governor Hugh Gregg. It is the state’s official war memorial and the reason the university’s student union building bears the name Memorial Union Building.
