Specialist Erica P. Alecksen was born January 30, 1991. She had always been crisp, stoic and matter of fact, and her family joked she would have made a fine military police officer since the time she was a child.
Alecksen joined the Army, and in August of 2010 was assigned to the 978th Military Police Company, 93rd Police Battalion, Fort Bliss, Texas.
On July 8th, 2012, in Maidan Shahr, Afghanistan, a roadside improvised explosive device detonated killing Specialist Alecksen. Also killed were Staff Sergeant Ricardo Seija, Specialist Clarence Williams, III, Specialist Trevor B. Adkins, Specialist Alejandro J. Pardo, and Specialist Cameron J. Stambaugh. Specialist Alecksen was 21.
After her death, Alecksen’s grandfather Harold Huggins shared, “I lost my brother in World War II, and I felt the same void. I’ve never felt anything like that in my entire life, and that was in 1945. This was like déjà vu. You can cry, and you do cry, but it doesn’t change anything.” Recalling memories with Alecksen, family members reflected on when she decided she wanted to be a military police officer: “That’s what I want to do,” she had said. “I want to protect people.”
Specialist Erica P. Alecksen is buried at Evergreen Cemetery, Manitowoc, Wisconsin.
Sources:
https://thefallen.militarytimes.com/army-spc-erica-p-alecksen/6568255
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/elpasotimes/name/erica-alecksen-obituary?id=21175298
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