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- The People Behind The Sacrifice
Army Pfc. Brian S. Ulbrich
Died June 5, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom
23, of Chapmanville, W. Va.; assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Carson, Colo.; killed June 5 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his military vehicle in Baghdad. Also killed were Staff Sgt. Justin L. Vasquez and Spc. Eric J. Poelman.
Boone County soldier killed in Iraq
Associated Press
CHAPMANVILLE, W.Va. — A West Virginia soldier who left Marshall University one semester shy of graduation and joined the Army has been killed in Iraq, relatives say.
Pfc. Brian Scott Ulbrich, 23, served as a lookout for bombs and insurgents ahead of his unit. He died Sunday after explosions rocked his Humvee, said his mother, Barbara Ulbrich.
Ulbrich graduated in 1999 from Scott High School in Madison. He studied criminal justice at Marshall and had hoped to become an FBI agent but changed his mind, his mother said.
He started training with the Army in April 2004 and joined a Fort Carson, Colo.-based unit that went overseas in March.
He had spent his weekends home from Marshall doing part-time work at a Boone County coal mine that included running a bulldozer.
On a recent mission, Ulbrich’s unit came upon a canal that looked to be uncrossable. He spotted a bulldozer nearby and hopped aboard. Before his commanding officers could react, he had the engine started and had a plan to cross the canal.
Barbara Ulbrich said that when a doubting officer questioned her son, he replied, “Sir, I’m a West Virginia coal miner and I know what I’m doing.”
He plowed a path that helped his unit navigate the canal a short time later.
“He always made the best out of any situation,” his mother said.
Family of soldier killed in Iraq receives his college degree
The Associated Press
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — The family of a West Virginia soldier who left Marshall University one semester shy of graduation and was later killed in Iraq received his college degree in criminal justice posthumously on Veterans Day.
Pfc. Brian Scott Ulbrich, 23, of Boone County was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad in June.
“I will say this probably means more to me and his recognition than anything that has been done up to this point,” his mother Barbara Ulbrich said Nov. 11. “He was 100 percent Herd fan. Before he ever was out of elementary school — Marshall, Marshall, Marshall — that’s all we heard.”
Ulbrich graduated in 1999 from Scott High School in Madison. He studied criminal justice at Marshall and had hoped to become an FBI agent, but changed his mind and joined the Army in January 2004. His unit was sent overseas in March.
“This was just great today, everything that they did — seeing Marshall come together and do something for someone that was truly a fan of Marshall and, not just of Marshall — loved our country, loved our state — it was touching,” said his sister Beth Ulbrich, who is a Marshall student herself.
On Nov. 10, the soldier’s name was etched on stone below a tree on campus.
Barbara Ulbrich said her son spent his weekends home from Marshall working part-time at a Boone County coal mine. He used that experience when his unit came upon a canal that appeared uncrossable. He spotted a bulldozer nearby and hopped aboard.
Barbara Ulbrich said that when a doubting officer questioned her son, he replied, “Sir, I’m a West Virginia coal miner and I know what I’m doing.”