Monroe Post office renamed to honor Gregg Wenzel

MONROE — Family members, friends, postal officials and community leaders gathered this past Monday to honor the legacy of a Monroe native by unveiling the plaque dedicating the Monroe Post Office to National Clandestine Service Central Intelligence Agency NCS Officer Gregg David Wenzel.

As per Public Law 113-209, the facility is now known as "National Clandestine Service of the Central Intelligence Agency NCS Officer Gregg David Wenzel Memorial Post Office."

The legislation was sponsored by U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney.

Wenzel, a former defense attorney in Florida, grew up in Monroe. He was a member of the first clandestine service training class to graduate after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

At the time of his death Wenzel worked as an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency and was stationed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, until he was killed in a car accident on July 9, 2003.

Wenzel was driving with "a high ranking Ethiopian official" when his car was hit head-on by an Ethiopian driver working for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, his father Mitchell Wenzel said in a July 2009 Photo News story.

Wenzel, a 1987 Monroe-Woodbury graduate, was not the U.S. State Department diplomat he had claimed to be.

"Gregg was a spy, on a clandestine mission gathering intelligence when he was killed," said Wenzel in that article. "He basically was operating the 'dark side.' He had disguises and aliases. He learned the Ethiopian language and was studying Arabic. Sometimes he would tell us, 'I won't be in touch with you for days.' There were things he didn't want us to know for our own protection."

A street in the Village of Monroe was also renamed to honor him.

To learn more about Wenzel, visit: http://www.greggwenzel.com/Home.html.

- Nancy Kriz