Army Pfc. Le Ron A. Wilson

Died July 6, 2007 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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18, of Queens, N.Y.; assigned to the 26th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.; died July 6 in Iraq of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Also killed was Sgt. Gene L. Lamie.

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Teen from Queens killed in Iraq

The Associated Press

NEW YORK — Le Ron Wilson was so eager to join the Army that for his 17th birthday, he asked his mother to sign enlistment papers.

Less than two years later, the Queens teenager was dead — killed by an explosive July 6 in Iraq.

“I always said whatever he chose I would support him,” Simona Francis said of her son. “That’s what he truly wanted.”

Francis, who lives in the Brookville section of Queens, said she and her son were so close and open with each other that he was “like a buddy” to her. “We almost didn’t have a mother-son relationship,” she said.

His mother said that Wilson, an Army private, had always been fascinated by weapons and camouflage, even trolling the Internet to learn as much as he could about guns. The teenager went into the military the day he graduated from high school.

“He loved it,” Francis said. “He lived for that. He told me, ‘I’m living my dream.’ ”