Taken in by Scammer??

I'm not sure, but I think I've been taken in by a scammer. I've been writing to this fellow who 'approached' me on okcupid while I was playing on the testing side. If you haven't been there, it's a lot of fun, sociological, psychological, nonsensical tests of all types. Also a match section, but the people on it are a little young for me. Anyhow, he says he's a soldier over in Iraq, and we've been writing for a while now - since November, 2005. He had given me the phone number of a friend of his in New York, and we've talked from time to time, mostly about our mutual 'friend' in Iraq. Well his buddy in NY e-mails me about a month ago that our friend has been injured, very seriously, and may not make it. I've really become attached to this person and I'm extremely upset by this turn of events. But now, as the guy supposedly is in the hospital in serious condition, little chinks in the story seem to be appearing, and I'm suspecting that both the fellow in NY and the one who supposedly was in Iraq, are one and the same. I don't understand why someone would do something like this, it isn't like he's gaining anything from it. I don't really have a way to check it out, and I don't want to stop writing the guy in the hospital, just in case my suspicions are false. But my intuition, which I make a habit of never listening to, unfortunately, is telling me I'm right. Life is difficult for people who are trusting.