Chief Warrant Officer 3 George “Geoff” Laubhan Jr. enlisted into the Idaho Army National Guard in January 2010 as an AH-64 attack helicopter repairer with D Company, 1st Battalion of the 183rd Aviation Regiment. In 2012, he was selected for Army flight school and entered into the Warrant Officer Candidate School program the following year. In 2013, Laubhan graduated the program and was appointed as a warrant officer. He then headed to Fort Rucker, Alabama, to complete an 18-month AH-64D Apache Longbow qualification course. After graduating flight school in 2014, Laubhan returned home where he was assigned as an Apache pilot with the battalion’s C Company. The following year, he attended a National Training Center rotation at Fort Irwin, California. After the battalion reorganized and transitioned from Apaches to Black Hawks in 2016, Laubhan attended the UH-60 A/L Black Hawk qualification course at Fort Rucker. He deployed in 2019 as a Black Hawk pilot to Guatemala with Detachment 1, G Company, 1st Battalion of the 168th Aviation Regiment in support of Operation Beyond the Horizon.
Approximately one year after returning home, he attended and graduated from the UH-60M aviator qualification course at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania. Laubhan served as an AH-64 Apache and UH-60 Black Hawk pilot, a UH-60 instructor pilot and a medevac pilot while with the battalion. He flew multiple joint service training exercises in Nevada at Fallon Naval Air Station (Top Gun) and Nellis Air Force Base, and in support of the Air Assault Rappel Qualification School in Astoria, Oregon. Laubhan is credited for flying a lifesaving mission in support of Idaho search and rescue operations. He also flew in support of wildland firefighting operations in California. His awards and decorations include the Army Achievement Medal, the Army Reserve Component Achievement Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Army Service Ribbon, the Army Reserve Component Overseas Training Ribbon, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Aviation Badge, the Army Aviator Badge, the California Achievement Medal and the Idaho Service Ribbon.
Laubhan was 39 and lived in Boise with his wife and two children.