“Gregg was born on the 18th, this event in his honor is on the 18th and the number of his star on the Memorial Wall at the CIA in Langley is 81, which, in reverse, is also Chai. Gregg lived life to the fullest.”
Mitchell Wenzel
(Father of Gregg)
May 18 2015
July 9, 2026 — After the tragic events of September 11, 2001, Gregg Wenzel decided to serve his country and became a member of the CIA in the first post-9/11 recruitment class. At the age of 33, Gregg Wenzel was killed in a car accident on a dark, two-lane road in Addis Ababa [Ethiopia] on July 9, 2003. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
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In 2004, three stars were added to the wall, bringing the total number to 83. Two of these new stars honor Christopher Glenn Mueller and William “Chief” Carlson, two civilian contractors killed in an ambush in Afghanistan in the Fall of 2003.
RELATED POST : CIA Memorial Wall — Stars 82 & 83 : Christopher Glenn Mueller and William “Chief” Carlson (Afghanistan — October 25, 2003)
At the time, Gregg Wenzel’s identity was not publicly acknowledged. However, on June 1 2009 the CIA uncovered Gregg’s identity as a clandestine services officer.
Numbers Don’t Lie
According to the original criteria for inclusion on the CIA Memorial Wall, eligibility was limited to employees whose deaths were considered “heroic or inspirational.”
RELATED POST : CIA Memorial Wall — STAR 2 : Jerome P. Ginley (East China Sea – January 11, 1951)
The evolution of the Wall’s criteria can be illustrated by the case of Chiyoki Ikeda [STAR 71]. Initially considered for inclusion in 1974, Ikeda was rejected because he had died in a plane crash while escorting a Japanese security official.
When the case was revisited in 1997, the Agency’s Honor and Merit Awards Board again opposed his inclusion, warning that adding his name could compromise the integrity of the Memorial Wall’s original purpose.
Despite this opposition, Director George Tenet personally supported Ikeda’s addition. CIA historians have described the decision as a turning point.
After Ikeda’s inclusion, the interpretation of the Memorial Wall expanded to encompass a broader range of duty-related fatalities, including deaths resulting from official travel, such as those of Daniel C. Dennett Jr. [STAR 131] and John Creech [STAR 130].
RELATED POST : The CIA Book of Honor — Stars 130 & 131 : Daniel Dennett and John Creech [Ethiopia — March 20, 1947]
The numbers reveal the scale of this shift.
The CIA was established on September 18, 1947. When the Agency held its first annual Memorial Ceremony on May 27, 1987, the Memorial Wall contained 50 stars.
Over the first 40 years of the CIA’s existence, this represented an average addition of approximately 1.25 stars per year.
Nearly four decades later, in 2026, the Agency added another star, bringing the total number of stars on the Wall to 141.
That means 91 stars were added during the second 40-year period — almost twice the number added during the Wall’s first four decades. This represents an average addition of approximately 2.33 stars per year.
The figures raise a fundamental question about the evolution of the Memorial Wall’s meaning.
As one CIA historian observed:
“There’s been an erosion of understanding in CIA leadership about what the wall is for.”
The debate is therefore not only about the number of stars, but about the criteria behind them.
The Memorial Wall was created as a tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to the Agency.
The continuing expansion of eligibility has transformed it from a memorial primarily honoring acts of exceptional courage into a broader record of lives lost in the line of duty.
REFERENCES
Gregg Wenzel – Wikipedia
CIA Remembers Employees Killed in the Line of Duty (May 21 2004) — CIA Website
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The CIA Memorial Wall — Book of Honor Star 81 : Gregg Wenzel
“The purpose of the wall is not to show compassion to the family. It’s to show who in our community is worthy of this honor.”
Nicholas Dujmovic
CIA historian
Intel Today 