Army Sgt. Gregory L. Wahl

Died May 3, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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30, of Salisbury, N.C.; assigned to the 4th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, Vilseck, Germany; one of four soldiers killed May 3 when their military vehicle left the road and flipped over in a canal in Balad, Iraq.

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Father: Prankster son grew up with marriage, military service

Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. — Gregory Wahl was a mischievous young man who often looked for trouble, but he found maturity with his marriage to a pretty Salvadoran woman and service in the military, his father said.

Wahl, a 30-year-old sergeant, was one of four men killed in Iraq on May 3 when their vehicle ran off a road and flipped into a canal. All four were assigned to the 4th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, based in Vilseck, Germany.

The Wahl family was from Valley Stream, N.Y., but lived in Salisbury when Gregory Wahl was a teenager and he graduated from West Rowan High School, his father, Leonard, told The (Raleigh) News & Observer from his home in New York state.

After graduating, Gregory Wahl moved back to New York, where he met his wife, Maricela.

“She’s the best thing that ever happened to him,” his father said. “He saw the light and made a 360-degree turn around. He made his goals.”

They briefly returned to Salisbury after their marriage, and it was there that Gregory Wahl joined the National Guard. They moved to upstate New York about a year later when he joined the regular Army.

His job took Wahl across the globe, including missions in Kosovo and Bosnia, his father said. He had been based in Germany for several years.

Still, he kept in touch with his father through regular phone calls.

“He was my 4 o’clock alarm,” Leonard Wahl said.

Maricela Wahl and the couple’s four-year-old daughter, Alexis, will accompany Wahl’s body back to the United States, Leonard Wahl said.