Marine Sgt. Phillip A. Bocks

Died November 9, 2007 Serving During Operation Enduring Freedom

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28, of Troy, Mich.; assigned to Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center, Bridgeport, Calif.; died Nov. 9 while conducting combat operations in Aranus, Afghanistan.

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Former Truckee student dies in Afghanistan

The Associated Press

TRUCKEE, Calif. — A former Truckee High School student has been killed in an ambush in Afghanistan, according to his family.

Marine Corps Sgt. Phillip Bocks, 28, who moved with his family from Michigan to Truckee when he was in seventh grade, attended schools in Truckee through the 11th grade. He joined the Marines in 2000.

For three years, Bocks was stationed at the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center near Bridgeport, Calif.

The attack that killed Bocks and five others in eastern Afghanistan on Nov. 9 brought the number of deaths of American servicemen to 101 for the year, making it the deadliest year for American troops in that theater.

The Marines were killed while returning from a meeting with village elders in Nuristan province, attacked my militants wielding rocket-propelled grenades.

Eight other Americans were wounded and three Afghan soldiers killed in the ambush.

Family survivors include Bocks’s father, Ken Bocks of Truckee; his stepmother, Monica Bocks of Truckee; and his mother, Peggy Bocks of Troy, Mich., the Sierra Sun reported Nov. 13.

A military service will be held at a later date in Bridgeport.