Rising-star Army Capt. George Wood of New York dashed off an e-mail to his young wife on the morning of Nov. 20 – just before heading out on patrol duty in Iraq and being killed in a bomb attack, family members said yesterday.
Wood missed his wife, Lisa, and their 3-year-old daughter, Maria, since being sent to the war-torn country in January.
But in his e-mail, “he was in good spirits,” distraught stepdad Michael Babula said of Wood, who was killed Thursday when his tank rolled over a roadside bomb and exploded in Baqubah.
“The family is doing horribly,” Babula said from upstate Marcy in Oneida County. “He was a phenomenal person.”
Babula said Wood recently confessed to relatives how tough it had been to be in Iraq as he found himself burying some pals.
“Said it was the hardest thing he’d ever done,” Babula told the Utica Observer-Dispatch.
But Babula said Wood’s love of the military continued, and he was always an inspiration to his three younger brothers.
“He was their idol,” the stricken stepdad said.
Additional reporting by Niles Lathem