Brandon Asbury remembered, laid to rest

Across the country, the bad news has been more common this month than at any time since January 2005 -- the word that a loved one has been killed in combat in Iraq.

Southwest Virginia hasn't been spared, either, as the name of Army Sgt. Brandon Asbury, 21, of Tazewell, has been added to the list.

To date, at least 28 of the more than 2,700 U.S. troops killed in Iraq and at least four of the more than 150 U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan have ties to Western Virginia.

The Department of Defense announced this week that Asbury died Oct. 7. His unit came under enemy small-arms fire while setting up a roadside checkpoint in Baghdad, the Army reported. His family told The Washington Post that sniper fire struck Asbury in the head.

That family had escaped tragedy in Iraq earlier when Asbury's father, Walter, a sergeant in the Virginia National Guard, completed a yearlong tour of duty unscathed. His unit, Company B, 276th Engineer Battalion, returned from Mosul in February 2005.

The elder Asbury downplayed the danger to his unit, but it suffered several casualties including those inflicted by a suicide bomber who attacked a mess hall in December 2004.

"It wasn't as bad as where he went," Walter Asbury told the Post. "He was in the worst part of Iraq."

Brandon Asbury was part of the 4th Support Battalion, 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, based at Fort Hood, Texas. He trained as a tracked vehicle repairman, but his sister, Kelly Perdue, told the Bluefield Daily Telegraph he was a medic and a gunner.

A 2004 graduate of Tazewell High School, Asbury played drums in the band, sang in the choir and was grand marshal for homecoming his senior year. In published reports, friends and family all described Asbury as a happy-go-lucky sort who loved to make others laugh.

Former classmate Amanda Branam told the Richlands News-Press, "I never managed to catch him during a serious moment, because he made sure to keep such a joyous demeanor no matter the circumstances. The most respectable jester you've ever seen. He was also a charmer, and very sweet toward the opposite sex, so as you can imagine he was popular with the ladies," said Branam, now a student at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. "I've never heard anyone say an unkind word against him, and I don't think anyone could force out an insult either."

Taking a phrase from a comical trucker's hat he owned, Asbury would use "Gooder than Snuff" to get a chuckle even when times were tough, his sister said. "He'd make you laugh so hard that you cried," Perdue said. "You'd bust your sides laughing at him."

Family members were traveling back to Virginia on Wednesday after funeral services were held Tuesday for Asbury in Texas, where his wife and stepchildren live.

In addition to his father and sister, Asbury was survived by his wife, Sherri, three stepdaughters, and his mother, Diane Alberts of North Carolina.

Family members have said a memorial service will be held later in Southwest Virginia, but arrangements for that have not been announced.

Asbury is the second Tazewell County native to die in the war in Iraq. Sgt. Guy Stanley Hagy Jr., a mortarman also based at Fort Hood, died in September 2004 of wounds inflicted by an improvised explosive device in Baghdad.

From the Roanoke Times

Related Link:
Parents recall Brandon Asbury

Related Link:
Brandon Asbury killed by small arms fire