Although the Wullenwaber name was familiar to us, as they lived on Indiana Avenue here for many years — Dean’s mother Mary Ann only recently was moved to a care facility — we had never been told the family had lost a young soldier.
“I am remiss in not bringing this to your attention earlier, but this is on the eve of [Luke’s’] five-year passing anniversary,” John wrote us. “ There are human interest stories that are worth the effort and this is one of them.”
On Monday, the fifth anniversary of his loss, I contacted Dean via e-mail and he responded with a call from his law office.
He is understandably heartbroken and grateful for his faith, which he said sustains him. “We are emotional amputees,” he said, referring to his wife Bonnie and himself. His voice is soft and betrays pain, but at the same time sounds resolute. He wants to keep Luke’s legacy alive. And so he began to share the story of his son’s life — and death.
I’d already read about Luke on a website called www.iraqwarheroes.com and realized before I spoke to Dean that his son was exceptional. But his father was able to give color and life to the words I’d found on the Web.
After his son was killed, Dean wrote a touching obituary. The first two paragraphs tells you much about the young man:
“Captain Luke C. Wullenwaber, the Executive Officer (XO) of Company A, 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry, was killed in action on November 16, 2004, in Khaladiyah, Iraq, four weeks shy of his 25th birthday. Captain Wullenwaber had volunteered for a security mission to give an enlisted man a day off. A violent explosion detonated by a homicide bomber in a civilian car did its work.
