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- The People Behind The Sacrifice
Army Pfc. Nicholas R. Cournoyer
Died May 18, 2006 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom
25, of Gilmanton, N.H.; assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y.; died May 18 of injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee during combat operations in Baghdad. Also killed were Lt. Col. Daniel E. Holland, 1st Lt. Robert A. Seidel III and Sgt. Lonnie C. Allen Jr.
Gilmanton soldier had ‘a huge heart,’ sister says
By Beverley Wang
The Associated Press
Concord, N.H. — A soldier from Gilmanton was killed this week in Iraq, a spokesman for the New Hampshire National Guard confirmed Friday.
Pfc. Nicholas Cournoyer, 25, was killed Thursday around 2:30 p.m. Iraq time by an improvised explosive device, Maj. Greg Heilshorn said.
“It was in the vicinity of Baghdad. They were in a convoy when the attack occurred,” Heilshorn said. There were multiple fatalities. No other details were available.
Cournoyer is the 10th serviceman from New Hampshire killed in Iraq. He worked as a mason’s assistant before joining the Army in January 2005. He was an infantryman with the 10th Mountain Division based in Fort Drum, N.Y., and was scheduled to return from Iraq late this summer.
Cournoyer is survived by his parents, Denis and Lenda Cournoyer, and a sister, Natalie.
“He was fun-loving, and he had a huge heart that reached out to many, many people,” Natalie Cournoyer told the Laconia Citizen.
Speaking from the Cournoyer home Friday, Heilshorn delivered a message on behalf of the dead soldier’s parents.
“He was very much proud of being a soldier,” he said. Heilshorn said Cournoyer’s parents described their son as a generous young man who “was always looking out for his buddies in his unit.”
Cournoyer was a 2000 graduate of Gilford High School. In the yearbook, he listed joining the military as one of his goals.
Faculty members remembered him fondly.
“He just had a happy presence in school,” school nurse Meg Jenkins told WMUR-TV. “He was very polite, very kind — always had a twinkle in his eye.”