From depth of dad's loss, generosity, hope arise

BY CYNTHIA DANIELS | STAFF WRITER

October 26, 2005

There are too many soldiers for Leonard Wahl.

Too many risking their lives in Iraq, too many leaving behind young children and too many being forgotten everyday by the American people.

Yet, somehow there are just enough soldiers to take Wahl's mind off his son Gregory, who was killed in Balad, Iraq, on May 3, 2004 when his vehicle flipped over in a canal during combat patrol.

"Nobody knows what it's like, I never did when it happened to Gregory," Wahl, 55, said. "I thought he was invincible - a big, tough guy and then BANG!"

Still Wahl, of Valley Stream, won't discredit the good things that have happened because of his son's death.

He started Children of the Fallen, Long Island, a nonprofit organization that gives money to Long Island children who lost loved ones in the War.

Since last year, Wahl said he's helped 10 children, most recently Emma Youngblood, an infant whose father, Travis Youngblood, 26, died in July from injuries he sustained after being hit by an explosive device in the city of Hit, Iraq.

He joined Operation Troop Box and sent hundreds of care packages to troops overseas - neatly stuffing large boxes with beef jerky, sunscreen, powdered Gatorade and a silver cross bookmark.

And he's attended several funerals of Manhattan and Long Island soldiers, comforting their families and paying his respects.

"They're so young," said Wahl, a past member of the U.S. Air Force. "You have to have something in you to join the Army, the Marines, the Air Force, the Coast Guard - because you're risking everything."

Wahl sees what Gregory risked every time he visits his daughter-in-law, Maricela, and his granddaughter Alexis, 6. He tries to visit the pair, now living in Brentwood, often, but says he still "hesitates to go" because he doesn't "like to see them upset."

"It's very hard on her [Maricela], very hard ... you can talk about Gregory coming back, he ain't coming back," Wahl said. "I feel bad about it, but that's the reality of it and it's not just my family. There are other families and when you see them you have to feel for them."

Still, Wahl feels America "can't walk out now."

"If you leave now, you're going to be back there in 10 years; it's going to be your kids going, my grandchildren. You don't want that to happen," he said.

Wahl admits that he "really hasn't even dealt with Gregory's death for himself." And he said, he's not sure when he will.

Every other week, Wahl, with flowers and Gregory's favorite meal in hand, takes the Long Island Rail Road to the Long Island National Cemetery in Pinelawn. He visits his son's tombstone, eats the roast beef and Swiss cheese sandwich with no mayonnaise or mustard, drinks the Mountain Dew and talks to Gregory.

When he's done, Wahl sets a flower on each and every tombstone of the 20 soldiers who served in Iraq.

"In past wars, in comparison, we haven't lost that many soldiers when you talk about 2,000," Wahl said. "But one soldier is too many."