Note: This article was originally published on June 8, 2005. We’re re-posting it now for our tribute to Colorado’s Fallen.
A young staff sergeant from Colorado’s Arkansas Valley was among three soldiers stationed at Fort Carson who died Sunday while on patrol south of Baghdad, Iraq.
Staff Sgt. Justin L. Vasquez, 26, of Manzanola; Spec. Eric J. Poelman, 21, of Racine, Wis.; and Pfc. Brian S. Ulbrich, 23, of Chapmanville, W.Va., were reported by the Department of Defense to have been killed when a homemade bomb detonated near their vehicle.
The three were assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, according to the Defense Department.
Born in Manzanola, a town of about 400 residents northwest of La Junta, Vasquez was described by his father as a “happy- go-lucky kid” and by his mother as someone “who could make light out of any bad situation.”
“I can tell you from the minute he was conceived, he never stopped moving,” said his mother, Vicki Bosley. “My uterus was a jungle gym. He continued that until his last day.”
Vasquez was on his second tour in Iraq after re-enlisting during his first tour.
He was a “master rappeller” in the Army, his mother said. He worked at a commercial gym in Colorado Springs during his off-duty hours teaching children to rock climb, she said.
It was at the gym that he met his wife, Riley, who lives in Colorado Springs. He has a 4-year- old son, Justin, from a previous marriage who lives with his mother in Louisiana.
Tino Vasquez said his son joined the Army three months after graduating from Manzanola High School in 1997.
“He didn’t waste any time,” the elder Vasquez said. “He wanted a career in law enforcement, and he thought the Army was a good way to go about it.”
He said his son was a commander of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle.
On Sunday afternoon, Tino Vasquez said, he got a call that a couple of men wanted to talk to him. Soon, they pulled up to the driveway, and a chaplain and another soldier got out.
“I’ll never forget it,” he said. “They walked up the driveway, and I met them halfway. ”
Ulbrich served as a lookout for bombs and insurgents ahead of his unit, said his mother, Barbara Ulbrich.
After graduating from high school in 1999, Ulbrich studied criminal justice and had hoped to become an FBI agent but changed his mind, she said.
For Poelman, it was his second tour of duty in Iraq. He spent five months in Iraq in 2003 and was redeployed in March, said his father, Matt Poelman.
Poelman joined the Army in January 2003 to get more experience operating heavy equipment such as bulldozers and cranes after being home schooled in high school, his father said.
The soldiers’ vehicle was stopped by an improvised explosive device, and the three were killed by a second explosive device when they got out of the vehicle to secure the area, Vasquez’s parents said.
Vasquez also is survived by two sisters and a nephew.
“He went the first go-round, and with all the prayers, he made it back safely,” Tino Vasquez said. “But, apparently God had other plans for him.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Staff writer Jim Kirksey can be reached at 303-820-1448 or jkirksey@denverpost.com.
