Friends recall fallen Marine

Friends of U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Phillip Allen Bocks, who was killed in an ambush in Afghanistan last week, are asking Douglas County residents to fly their flags at half staff on Monday.

Bocks grew up in Truckee and attended Truckee High School and for three years was stationed at Pickel Meadow Mountain Warfare Training Center near Coleville, Calif., south of Douglas County.

Gardnerville resident Jennifer Pickering said Bocks had several friends in Gardnerville while he was stationed at the Pickel Meadow Mountain Warfare Training Center.

"We are asking that people fly their flags at half staff in his memory, especially given what a wonderful person he was and the service he gave his country."

Bocks worked with Pickering's husband.

"He would stay up here with us quite a bit when he wasn't on the base," Pickering said.

"He would call and ask what was for dinner and then we would be in the kitchen making it," she said. "He was a great friend to many of us down here. Even when he was having a bad day, he found a way to make himself and everyone else laugh."

Pickering said Bocks' friends will miss him greatly.

"He will always be in our hearts and memories," she said.

Services for Bocks are 1 p.m. Monday at Pickel Meadows.

Bocks' friend Gardnerville resident Nicole Gesselman said he enjoyed going camping and wakeboarding.

"We always went camping and we have a boat and he loved go wakeboarding with us every weekend," she said. "He was very special to us and he was our friend and our hero."

Gesselman expressed her sympathies to Bocks' family.

"You have a wonderful son and he will always be remembered and loved," Gesselman.

Bock would ride dirtbikes with a group of friends in the East Valley at "The Ranch," Gesselman said.