Bartlett High School graduate and Carol Stream resident Pfc. Leonard Gulczynski is being remembered as an individual with a great personality and a beaming smile.

The 19-year-old Army engineer, who graduated from Bartlett High in 2007, was killed in a traffic accident in Iraq last week.

The flag at Gulczynski’s alma mater is at half-staff this week, and a memorial has been formed as well-wishers try to cope with the loss by placing flowers, balloons, photos, candles and drawings at the flagpole. A jersey placed at the memorial has a message scrawled in marker: “I will miss you, Lenny.”

Both the flag being at half-staff and the memorial will remain through Saturday.

“No one didn’t like him; he had a million-dollar smile that would just light up any room,” said Corey Braun of Bartlett, who went to high school with Gulczynski.

“We called him the gentle giant,” Braun said, referring to Gulczynski’s 6-foot, 5-inch frame.

It was that height that put Gulczynski in the position of gunner in the turret of his military Humvee, said several Army recruiters.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense, the Humvee veered into oncoming traffic and hit a civilian vehicle. Gulczynski was ejected, causing his death.

The accident is under investigation.

“He always sent us pictures from the desert, and they had no color,” said his mother, Jackie. “[They were] all brown.

“We sent him pictures of home, something to brighten his day; at least he had some color to look at.”

Gulczynski played football and volleyball at Bartlett High School, and always wanted to be in the military to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. He was deployed to Iraq in the spring.

“He always wanted to be in the military,” said Ray Sniezek of Bartlett, who graduated with Gulczynski. “He never regretted joining at all.
“He thought it was what he was born to do, and he enlisted right after high school. It was impossible not to like him. If everyone was in a bad mood or whatever, Lenny would walk in the room and everyone’s mood would just get better. His laugh was so infectious.”

Jackie Gulczynski also said that her son had no regrets about joining the Army.

“He was proud of what he was doing,” she said. “If he knew this would be the outcome, he still would have chosen what he did. That’s just the kind of person he was.”

Gulczynski was a member of the Army’s Triple Nickel 555 Engineering Unit, based at Fort Lewis in Washington state.

Elgin School District U-46 flew all its flag at half-staff last Friday in honor of Gulczynski.

After hearing the news, students and staff at Bartlett High School honored Gulczynski with a moment of silence Sept. 18. The school placed a flower arrangement along with a photo of Gulczynski at the school’s flagpole, said Tony Sanders, chief communications officer for District U-46.

Gulczynski also attended Eastview Middle School in Bartlett and Spring Trail Elementary in Carol Stream.

Before his deployment in March, Gulczynski said the war did not impact his decision to join the military after graduating last year.

“The war had no bearing on my decision,” he said. “It’s something I always wanted to do.”

Along with his mother, Gulczynski also is survived by his father, Michael; sister, Jacki, 15; and a brother, Mike Jr., 12.

Reporter David Heitz contributed to this report.