Alaska-based US Army Specialist Robert L. Voakes Jr., from L'Anse, Michigan, was killed in action in Afghanistan on 4th June 2011. Spc. Voakes and three colleagues were killed by the blast from a homemade bomb when his unit was on patrol.
Spc. Voakes, age 21, served with the 793rd Military Police Battalion, based in Alaska. He joined the army in 2009 serving at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri and transferred to Alaska in 2010.
He was posthumously promoted from Private First Class to Specialist.