Latest news with #Ulrich
San Francisco Chronicle
12-07-2025
- General
- San Francisco Chronicle
‘Carrying the torch': WWII soldier who died in prison camp in Philippines identified, buried in S.F.
During a routine visit to his parents' home in San Jose this past November, Eric Ulrich began to tackle a mound of mail, boxes and old packages that had accumulated over the past few weeks. As he sorted through a pile stacked high of envelopes and loose paper, Ulrich came across a FedEx package labeled with a return address from Fort Knox, Ky. 'U.S. Army,' read the envelope addressed to his father Gerald, Ulrich recalled. Confused as to why his 89-year-old father was receiving mail from the Army, Ulrich opened the package. Inside was a message from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, or the DPAA — the federal agency tasked with recovering missing military personnel and prisoners of war. The letter would kick off an eight-month journey that culminated in an emotional ceremony Friday at the San Francisco National Cemetery in the Presidio. Cpl. Ernest Ulrich, a World War II soldier who died in the Philippines after being subjected to the brutal Bataan Death March, was finally laid to rest in the U.S. after 80 years of being labeled 'Unknown.' For several weeks, the DPAA had been trying to notify Ulrich's father that recent dental and DNA testing had identified the remains of an unknown World War II soldier as belonging to Cpl. Ulrich — the half-brother of Ulrich's paternal grandfather, or his father's uncle. 'It was pretty incredible,' Ulrich told the Chronicle, but 'I had no idea who this person was.' No one had ever mentioned him, not even his grandfather — a World War I veteran who would often tell his grandchildren stories far beyond their years. When Ulrich reached out to the DPAA phone number listed at the bottom of the letter, he learned that the path to his great uncle's identification involved several burials and subsequent exhumations, spanned two countries separated by the Pacific Ocean and took over 80 years. Cpl. Ulrich, who was from China, Texas, served in the medical department of the 200th Coast Artillery Regiment during World War II, the DPAA told Ulrich (and later shared in a news release). After enlisting in March 1941, Cpl. Ulrich was transported with the rest of the 200th to the Philippines in October. When Japanese forces invaded the islands that December, the regiment provided ground support through several months of intense combat. Fighting continued until the United States surrendered the Bataan peninsula and Corregidor Island in the late spring of 1942. Japanese forces captured thousands of American and Filipino troops, including Cpl. Ulrich, as prisoners of war and subjected them to the 65-mile Bataan Death March, along with 78,000 others, toward the Cabanatuan POW Camp, DPAA officials said. Cpl. Ulrich, then 26, was admitted to the camp hospital for pellagra and beriberi — illnesses caused by vitamin deficiencies — as well as dysentery in September 1942, according to camp records cited by the DPAA in documents provided by Ulrich. He died of his illnesses on Nov. 22, 1942, according to camp records and other historical evidence. Cpl. Ulrich was buried in the camp's Common Grave 807, alongside several other servicemen. According to federal estimates, the camp saw upwards of 800 deaths per month and over 2,700 prisoners of war were buried in the camp cemeteries by 1945, when troops liberated the camp. After the war, American personnel relocated Cpl. Ulrich's remains from the Cabanatuan graves to the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, where they were considered unidentifiable and labeled 'Unknown,' federal officials say. According to DPAA documents provided by Ulrich, federal investigators in the mid-1940s identified three service members from the same grave, but were unable to identify any others due to 'inconclusive' dental records and forensics. At the time, an expert anthropologist said the remains were 'jumbled beyond belief' and in 'such a state of deterioration that evidence on which identification depends had been largely obliterated.' At the end of the Vietnam War in 1973 the Department of Defense designated an agency to search for all missing personnel and prisoners of war. At its launch, the DPAA's predecessor estimated that nearly 73,700 American soldiers who fought in World War II were missing. Today, only about 1,800 of those missing soldiers, or roughly 2.4%, are accounted for. After finding sufficient evidence to exhume several unresolved cases in August 2014, DPAA excavated the remains of nine unknown soldiers associated with Common Grave 807 in late 2018, agency officials said. The remains were transported to the agency's testing site in Hawaii. The agency's scientists identified Cpl. Ulrich's remains by using dental, anthropological and historical evidence, while personnel from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner system confirmed the results by using Y-chromosome DNA analysis, officials said. Ulrich noted that the DPAA used a DNA sample from Cpl. Ulrich's nephew, Boyce Ulrich, who has since passed away after providing the sample. Of the 999 service members from Camp Cabanatuan who were originally deemed missing, only 117, or just under 12%, have been accounted for, according to federal estimates. Cpl. Ulrich's remains arrived in the Bay Area on Tuesday, according to a Facebook post from Honoring Our Fallen, a nonprofit aiming to support military families. Personnel performed military honors at Oakland International Airport upon his arrival. The family knows little about their long-lost uncle. They have no photographs and merely one faded memory of him. Ulrich's father told him he recalled visiting Cpl. Ulrich on Angel Island before the regiment left for the Pacific Theatre; at the time, his father was less than five years old, and didn't remember anything about his uncle. After the war ended, all the family knew was that Cpl. Ulrich died during the Bataan Death March, Ulrich said. 'I didn't think I would have cried for a great uncle who I didn't know, who died in 1942,' Eric Ulrich said, describing Cpl. Ulrich's arrival ceremony. 'But with everybody standing around, everybody thinking about the historical moment — there are thousands of people that are never going to have this moment.' Since hearing the details of his great uncle's story, Ulrich's goal has been 'to do the right thing for this gentleman that did his service to his country,' he said. 'My role is to try to facilitate and see this through.' Wanting to learn more about his newly found relative, Ulrich looked further into the 200th Coast Artillery Regiment and came across a book, titled 'Beyond Courage: One Regiment Against Japan, 1941-1945,' which detailed the experiences of a small group within the 200th regiment via first-hand accounts and archival research. Ulrich was particularly drawn to a moment in the book when the ship carrying the 200th passes under the Golden Gate Bridge, prompting one soldier to tell another that 'some of us won't see that bridge again.' The Ulrich family originally wished to bury Cpl. Ulrich next to his half-brother in Palo Alto, or in the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno. But in telling the story of the 200th and the Golden Gate Bridge, the family secured a resting place at the San Francisco National Cemetery in the Presidio, overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. The coveted resting place, reserved for military veterans and their spouses, is completely full, according to Greg Silva, funeral director and general manager of Twin Chapels Mortuary, Cpl. Ulrich's funeral home. All of its burial spots are either occupied or reserved for spouses. But a very select few of the reserved spots can sometimes become vacant due to spouses changing their plans or other extraordinary circumstances, Silva explained. 'We got lucky,' he noted. 'To have him return back to San Francisco to be buried at the Presidio in the last place he saw before he left America (is) amazing,' Ulrich said, 'It's a celebration of this man who has paid his dues.' Under a partly sunny sky Friday, with the Golden Gate Bridge peaking through the fog, Cpl. Ulrich's remains arrived in the Presidio, just a couple miles away from where he was over 80 years ago. Surrounded by a new generation of family members, almost all of whom were born after he passed, Cpl. Ulrich received a full military honors ceremony that included a playing of military taps, a six-gun salute and an emotional flag-folding ceremony. For Ulrich's wife, Marti, the celebration was the 'feel-good, happy ending' to a long journey of 'picking up the pieces and carrying the torch.' 'This whole process has been something else,' Marti Ulrich said at the ceremony. 'To see it finally come full circle — the pieces of the puzzle just kept falling into place.' One war and 80 years later, Cpl. Ulrich was laid into the ground on the northern side of the cemetery, with a picture-perfect view of the Golden Gate Bridge.
New York Post
05-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani's posture reveals how Dems really felt during tense NYC mayoral debate showdown: experts
Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo dodging an onslaught of jabs and socialist state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani trying to snag a viral breakout moment were among the standouts from New York City's mayoral Democratic primary debate. Body language experts weighed in after the Democratic candidates sparred against each other Wednesday in the first debate of the 2025 primary election — as they jostled to outshine in each other in an already overcrowded race. Here's what they had to say of the top moments: Advertisement 5 The Democratic candidates for New York City mayor participating in a debate on June 4, 2025. Pool/ABACA/Shutterstock A rapidly blinking Cuomo Despite being the front-runner, Cuomo's body language clearly shifted as the NBC-Politico debate wore on as he was relentlessly attacked by his fellow candidates over more than two hours. The former governor, 67, dramatically increased his blinking when peppered with questions about his handling of COVID nursing home deaths and the sexual harassment scandal that led to his resignation, according to Washington DC-based body language expert Christopher Ulrich. Advertisement 'Initially confident and expressive, Cuomo's posture changed over time — particularly when he was under attack,' Ulrich said. 5 Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo looked uncomfortable as the attacks from other candidates continued, body language experts told The Post. 'We also saw an increase in blink rate when asked questions about COVID-19 nursing home deaths and sexual harassment.' The behavior, the expert noted, was a clear sign of 'increased psychological discomfort.' Hand in his pocket Advertisement Cuomo was also repeatedly spotted with his hand in his pocket as the going got tough, according to experts. 'While under verbal attack from the rest of the candidates, we see Cuomo keep his hand in his pocket, a self-soothing or protective gesture that often signals discomfort,' Ulrich said. At various points, Cuomo could be seen staring down at his podium as the attacks continued. 5 Cuomo kept on putting his hand in his pocket throughout the debate. NBC / YouTube Advertisement 'These unrelenting jabs, that obviously hit his sore spots, ultimately resulted in Cuomo looking down at his podium more than he looked up at the other candidates, the hosts or the camera,' brain and body language expert and psychiatrist Carole Lieberman said. 'To remove himself from the hostility directed at him, he began writing something and concentrated on it, so as not to be disturbed.' In search of a viral moment Mamdani, the 33-year-old socialist Queens Assemblyman, repeatedly used wild hand gestures in an apparent bid to steal the spotlight from Cuomo, the experts said. '[He] employed numerous attacks, including references to Cuomo's donors and the COVID report, to try to contrast and achieve one of those viral moments,' Ulrich said, adding that he often gestured toward Cuomo when delivering the attacks. 5 Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani used wild hand gestures to stand out during his clashes with Cuomo, experts say. Lieberman noted that Mamdani — who has zeroed in on young, white, ultra-left New Yorkers during his campaign — often used 'sensational, dramatic language' on stage at 30 Rockefeller Center. 'He is the wild card in the race, as his hand gestures, pointing in all directions, underscored,' she said. 'He was the most animated and determined to outshine Cuomo.' A statesmanlike performance A fired up Rev. Michael Blake came off as 'very stately' — even as the former Obama administration official consistently hammered Cuomo on stage, Lieberman said. Advertisement Ulrich added that Blake, a former Bronx Assembly member, tried to command attention with his Cuomo onslaught. 5 Rev. Michael Blake appeared 'stately' as he stood up to Cuomo. 'Mr. Blake stood out in some of the key moments by demanding Cuomo clarify several of his answers,' he said. 'Reporters often picked up on those demands and would repeat Blakes's clarifying questions. 'By interjecting assertively and keeping others quiet, Blake commanded attention. This approach mirrored techniques used by Trump in the 2016 Republican primary debates,' Ulrich said.
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Legendary Hard Rock Band Racks Up the Heavy Metal as Iconic Album Hits Sales of 20 Million
Metallica is one of the biggest hard-rock acts in history. They're currently slaying fans on tour and their classic records continue to shift units, as two of their classic titles just reached new certification heights by the Recording Industry Assn. of America. The band has announced through their press representatives that their self-titled 1991 album, known as The Black Album, has been certified 20 times platinum for sales in excess of 20 million copies. 🎬 SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox 🎬 That's big enough news, but in typical Metallica style, there's more. Masters of Puppets, the band's third album, has been certified eight times platinum for over 8 million in sales. The Black Album is seen as Metallica's mainstream breakthrough as it went to No. 1 in 10 different countries, including the U.S., where it spent four weeks atop the Billboard 200 beginning the chart week of Aug. 31, 1991. 'We had come off the …And Justice for All album and tour. For me, it was pretty obvious that we had taken the progressive, complicated side of Metallica as far as we could take it,' drummer, who writes the bulk of the band's songs with singer/guitarist , said in an interview for The Billboard Book of Number One Albums. 'The songs kept getting longer and more and more sideways. When we took those songs out on the road, we realized that was it. We really needed to make a major change — not so much for commercial reasons, but creatively we had exhausted that route.'During that same period, Ulrich had begun to rediscover his hard-rock roots by listening to classic sides by the Rolling Stones and AC/DC. 'The one thing in Metallica that we had not done was to really sit down and try to write a bunch of short and more to-the-point songs,' he said. 'We decided to take what we do in Metallica and make it a little more straightforward and not be so concerned about trying to show our musicianship.' The plan worked. The first song that Ulrich and Hetfield wrote for the new album was 'Enter Sandman,' which Ulrich said, 'That was the most straightforward, simplest song we had ever written. We did that in two days. That kind of set the tone for the whole record.' With producer Bob Rock, known for such classics as Motley Crue's Dr. Feelgood, on board, Metallica went on to write and record such classics as 'The Unforgiven,' 'Wherever I May Roam,' 'Nothing Else Matters' and more. 'Everyone has one album when everything comes together,' said Ulrich. 'This was ours.' Metallica is currently on the third year of its M72 World Tour, which has set attendance records at venues ranging from SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles to the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse, N.Y. The band's next gig is Wednesday, May 28 at Northwest Stadium in Washington, D.C. Legendary Hard Rock Band Racks Up the Heavy Metal as Iconic Album Hits Sales of 20 Million first appeared on Parade on May 28, 2025
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
LSU Gets Visit from 5-Star All-American in Transfer Portal
LSU Gymnastics may be on the verge of landing one of the top gymnasts in the country. Madison Ulrich posted pictures on her Instagram from her visit to Baton Rouge. Although she used the hashtag #notcommitted, she seems like a perfect fit for LSU. Advertisement Madison said in the comments, 'Baton Rouge, how we feelin?[hearts emojis]' Her accomplishments as a student-athlete with the University of Denver Pioneers are nothing short of outstanding. She has recently recorded career highs on Vault (9.925), Beam (9.900), Floor (9.95), and All-Around (39.575) during the NCAA Second Round and Regionals last month. The former 5-star recruit from South Carolina has been a leader on Denver from the moment she arrived two years ago. In addition to being named the Big 12 Newcomer of the year in 2024, she followed it up by individually qualifying for the NCAA National Championships. It's clear that LSU is pulling out all the stops for this gymnast. The team's existing squad members had a lot to say about Ulrich's visit in the comments. Advertisement Haleigh Bryant posted, 'These are your colors. Yes, yes, yes!' Lexi Zeiss said, 'So fun having you!!!' Freshman Kaliya Lincoln posted, 'You look so good in purple and gold'. Kylie Coen posted, 'I like this!' Kailin Chio posted, 'Yes, ma'am!' And Junior Ashley Cowan posted, 'We feelin' good!' It's still very much uncertain where Ulrich will be competing next season, but the anticipation is clear. Madison's choices could significantly influence who the frontrunners will be for the 2026 gymnastics season. Related: Angel Reese and Livvy Dunne React to Hailey Van Lith Swimsuit Photo Shoot Related: Livvy Dunnes Announces Riders Up Ahead of Good Cheer's Kentucky Oaks Win Related: Some Fans are Disgusted by Livvy Dunne's Latest Viral Video
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Longmont's Calvary Open Door ESL/high school equivalency program celebrates 19 graduates
Dressed in caps and gowns, graduates in Longmont celebrated a major milestone Saturday evening: achieving their high school equivalency degrees. During a bilingual ceremony at Longmont's Venture Church, graduates of the Calvary Open Door program received certificates of completion for passing their high school equivalency classes. This year's class had 19 graduates, with 13 attending the ceremony in person. Barbara Ulrich, director of Open Door, said the Class of 2025 is the largest pool of graduates the program has had in its decade of operation. Calvary Open Door is an academic prep program that helps adults work toward their high school equivalency degrees. Program participants take classes and tests at Venture Church, formerly Calvary Church, at 2101 Gay St. Ulrich explained that students needed to pass five tests to graduate: reading, writing, math, science and social studies. Each graduate receives a diploma from the Colorado Department of Education. 'That is a huge accomplishment,' Ulrich said. 'It's been awesome for me to watch this journey.' This year's graduates are Abel Villegas, Alma Berumen, Annallely Mesa, Dulce Guzman, Eloisa Bailon, Erika Leeticia Escalante, 'Faviola' Maria Gandara Bayona, Jose Matos, Juan Azdar, Juliza Hernandez, Luke Arnott, Maria Elena Rico, Maria de la Luz Rodriquez, Maria Soto Lozano, Martha Galvan Ceniceros, Oralia Macias, Tomas Scott, Valeria Aguilar Loera, and Wendy Clavel. Ulrich said students of all ages and backgrounds come through the program. So far, the oldest student to participate in Open Door was 65. 'You're never too late to get your diploma,' Ulrich said. Graduate Abel Villegas called getting his high school equivalency degree a 'significant step' for his life. 'The achievements in our lives are a reflection of what we do,' Villegas said. 'We have to work hard for the things that we want in the future.' Villegas addressed his classmates, encouraging them to follow their dreams. Luke Arnott, left, and Juliza Hernandez, hold up their Graduation Certificates during the group photo. There were 20 graduates in this year's Calvary Open Door ESL class. Graduates received their HSE diplomas from the Colorado Department of Education on April 26, 2025.(Cliff Grassmick/Staff Photographer) 'Turn your dreams into reality,' Villegas told them. 'Be brave. Life is not easy. It requires effort and commitment.' Open Door teachers handed the graduates their certificates and congratulated them on reaching this point. 'Everybody in my class from last summer passed,' said Jodi Benson, a social studies teacher for Open Door. Benson explained that most of the students had to balance responsibilities in their lives on top of their studies. 'They come back to school, maybe after having kids,' Benson said. 'Maybe they're taking these tests in English when their first language is Spanish.' Ana Nieto, who supervises the testing center, said she's familiar with seeing the students nervous while taking their tests. The graduation ceremony, however, was a time for everyone to celebrate. 'When I see them here, I'm very proud of them,' Nieto said of the students. 'I know that it's not easy.'
