Motorcycles roared onto 145th Road in Brookville Tuesday, leading the funeral procession for 18-year-old Private Le Ron Wilson, who was killed in Iraq on July 6th when his vehicle hit an explosive device."He was a great kid, always outgoing, always willing to do anything., really fun to hang out with,” said Wilson’s friend Vernon Cruz.
"Someone so young, so close to us, who hung out with us, you know, this happens, and you don't know how to take it, you just gotta keep moving forward, that’s about it,” said another friend Daniel Rafael.
Hundreds of mourners made their way into Christ the King church to remember Wilson, who came to New York from Trinidad at the age of 11.
For his 17th birthday, he asked his mother to sign enlistment papers for the army, and she did it.
He joined up after graduation from Thomas Edison High School.
"We all told him not to go, but he still went,” said Wilson’s aunt Anne Marie Charles. “That was his choice."
Wilson followed in the footsteps of his father, a Cadet Force Major in Trinidad.
"I'm very proud of him. I don't want his name to just be a name hanging on a wall. I want him to live on,” said Wilson’s father Lawrence Wilson. “I've been promised by a couple people that they're going to do whatever they can to keep his name living on and that's what I hope. I'm going to fight every fight possible to ensure that his name lives on. He didn't die for no reason. He died for a cause.”
Le Ron Wilson was posthumously awarded the Good Conduct, Bronze Star and Purple Heart medals.
Wilson will be buried with full military honors at Long Island National Cemetery.
