Robert L. Voakes Jr.
Specialist, United States Army
February 26, 1990 – June 4, 2011
Age – 21
L’Anse, MI
Operation Enduring Freedom
793rd Military Police Battalion, 3rd Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, AK
Died at FOB Fenty, Afghanistan of wounds suffered in Laghman Province when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device
SPC Robert L. Voakes Jr., 21, of L’Anse was among four soldiers who died when insurgents attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device June 4 in Laghman province, the Defense Department said. They were assigned to a military police battalion from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska.
SPC Voakes was born in Hancock, Mich., Feb. 26, 1990, and joined the U.S. Army in 2009. He served as military policeman, driver and gunner. The 2009 Baraga High School graduate was a very quiet, polite young man who went about his business. He was very well liked by every teacher and by every student at the school.
Bruce Rundman, a former basketball coach and the guidance counselor at Baraga High, remembered Voakes as having “had a real gentle presence and a quiet wit. Robert was really funny, but unfailingly polite.”
Rundman said Voakes provided him with one of the “best laughs of my coaching career. The JVs were scrimmaging the varsity, and it was shirts and skins. Robert looked at me and said, ‘Hey coach, when are you going to take your sweater vest off?’
The one thing all soldiers seemed to remember most about Voakes was his tremendous pride for his Native American heritage. In fact they say he was planning to take his mid-tour leave to attend a Native American function back at his tribe, and aspired to being a reservation police officer.
He was Native American and very proud of that heritage. He told his squad leader that he and one of his brothers were the only two from his tribe that had been to Afghanistan and in combat. His family was very proud of him for his service.
He had a huge flag of his tribe in his room. He would get very upset if you told him you thought he was anything else than Native American. Voakes was proud of his Native American heritage, and the Keweenaw – his tribe. They were an important part of his life. He was a warrior.
U.S. Army Capt. Christopher Gehri, from Anchorage, Alaska, Voakes’ company commander with the 164th, also spoke of the young soldier’s sense of humor. “Spc. Voakes chose his words carefully, more often than not, at the exact right time to let his fellow soldiers have a laugh. His word was always good enough. His actions were above reproach.”
U.S. Army Sgt. Jonathan Enlow, a team leader with the 164th from Tahlequah, Okla., agreed. “He was quiet, but not because he didn’t know what to say or didn’t want to say it, but he just was reserved. But he was always on the periphery watching. And he always had a comeback, he was very witty. He was waiting to say something and when he let it loose, you had nothing you could say.”
U.S. Army Spc. Colton Oslund, from Stillman Valley, Ill., another military police officer with the 164th who spoke about Voakes at the memorial ceremony, remembered something different about Voakes. “I remember Spc. Voakes always talking about his Cadillac,” Oslund recalled. He loved that car, and I’d like to think that somewhere Voakes is driving around in a 24-karat-gold Cadillac with 24s, the truck bumpin’ and watching over us.”
“He had been my gunner, and he was an excellent gunner, he was just flat out on it,” U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Vincent Vetterkind, a squad leader with the 164th from Wausau, Wis., said.
His military awards include the Purple Heart, Bronze Star Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Ribbon, North Atlantic Treaty Organization Medal and the Combat Action Badge.