Pfc. Le Ron A. Wilson, an 18-year-old from Queens who was one of the youngest American servicemen to be killed since the war in Iraq began in 2003, was buried today in Farmingdale, on Long Island, after a funeral Mass at Christ the King Church in Springfield Gardens, Queens, The Associated Press reports.
Private Wilson was killed on July 6 when his Humvee was hit with a roadside bomb on patrol in Baghdad. Trained as a weapons mechanic, he was assigned to Third Infantry Division but had volunteered for a weeklong patrol with the 3-7 Cavalry. He was posthumously awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.
In a dispatch today from Iraq, The Daily News reports on the sorrow of Private Wilson’s fellow soldiers. They said Private Wilson, who is survived by his mother and a 5-year-old brother, grew up poor and believed he could provide for his mother through a career in the military:
“She had a wonderful son,” said Spec. Blake Blann, 22, of Texarkana, Ark., who was Wilson’s roommate at Fort Stewart, Ga. “He was always doing the right thing and making sure everyone else was, too.”
Private Wilson’s father was from Trinidad and Tobago and served in its military. Private Wilson enlisted at age 17, which required his mother’s permission, shortly after graduating from Thomas Edison High School. NY1 reports on the memories of some of Private Wilson’s friends from New York, and WCBS-TV quotes his aunt, Anne Marie Charles, describing him as “a loving child.”
Jim Dwyer is writing a column for The Times, to be published on Wednesday, about Private Wilson’s funeral.
