NEW Time seemed to stop in New
Madrid Wednesday as virtually all of its cotton workers, firefighters,
veterans, schoolchildren and farmhands took time to honor a hero. Some saluted, some wiped
away tears, others just stared at the ground as the body of 1st Lt. Amos
Camden Bock was driven to Bock, 24, died Oct. 22
while serving in "He came back
early," said Pastor Randy Tochtrop. "He came back not just to a
house on Bock was laid to rest with
pallbearers made up of a military honor guard from the 101st Airborne
Division in An honor roll student, Bock
joined the National Guard while still in high school. He was part of the
1140th Engineer Battalion, Company C in At During the funeral at Immaculate
Conception Church, a fellow West Point graduate who both roomed and trained
with Bock at "He was loyal, someone
you could count on never to let you down even if he was slightly sarcastic
while he was doing it. Simply put, he was a great friend," said 1st Lt.
Travis Marks of Bock, Marks said, is the
fourth graduate from their class at "It doesn't hit you
until it happens to you. You lose one of your friends. There's really nothing
you can do to prepare you for it," he said after the service. "When you're in Childhood friend Natalie
Hunter grew up next door to "My parents called him
'that damned Bock kid,'" she said to laughter from the crowd. "And
he didn't mind that because it meant he could curse when he repeated
it." "He was a force to be
reckoned with," she said. Hunter remembers setting up
a lemonade stand only to have "He was the kid who challenged
every teacher and who could make the weaker ones shake when his hand went up
in class," Hunter said. "He will be remembered
fondly, talked about often and never forgotten." Everyone knew his playful
side, but few knew how dangerous his missions were in It was a choice he made to
spare his mother and tight-knit family added worries. " Bock was charged with
leading 20 men and four Humvees on patrols on the south side of Lynn Bock also passed along
a message from Mike Anderson, a fellow platoon leader serving in
"He called them 'my
guys,'" said The funeral procession led
to Friends continue to visit
Bock's MySpace page and other Internet sites to post tributes. A visitor to
the page gets a good idea of the soldier's sardonic wit. His stated motto:
"No good deed goes unpunished." Also evidence of an active
mind who embraced life's contradictions, Bock the avid hunter and soldier
lists Ernest Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms" as one of his
favorite books. DOD news release http://www.defenselink.mil/Releases/Release.aspx?ReleaseID=10122 From the Southeast
Missourian http://semissourian.com/gallery/bock-funeral/ http://iraqnam.blogspot.com/2006/10/camden-amos-cr-bock-remembered.html http://iraqnam.blogspot.com/2006/10/camden-amos-cr-bock-killed-by-roadside.html Pictures |