Wenzel
MONROE – Gregg David Wenzel was a native of Monroe and a graduate of Monroe-Woodbury High School. He joined the CIA in the first post-9/11 class and became a member of the National Clandestine Service of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Wenzel was killed at age 33 on July 9, 2003 while serving in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
His memory has now been forever memorialized in Monroe with the renaming of the Monroe Post Office in his honor.
Even though the family knew Gregg had been killed, they sought to have his death withheld from the public, said his father, Mitchell.
“We did not push for him to be disclosed right away as a CIA clandestine
officer for the simple reason other people were probably working for him
and also to not jeopardize anybody else’s lives that were in contact
with him,”he said.
Wenzel is the first CIA officer to be afforded the distinction of having a federal building named in his memory.
After high school, Wenzel attended SUNY Binghamton and earned his law degree from the Miami School of Law. He later became a public defender, but joined the CIA to serve his country after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
His father said the ceremony, attended by some 300 people on Monday, was a fitting tribute to his son.
