State Orders Flags Lowered Monday For UP Soldier
L'ANSE (AP) - Gov. Rick Snyder is ordering U.S. flags in Michigan lowered to half-staff Monday in honor of U.S. Army Spc. Robert L. Voakes Jr., who was killed in an insurgent attack in Afghanistan.
The 21-year-old from L'Anse in the western Upper Peninsula was one of four soldiers who died when an improvised explosive device hit their unit June 4 in Laghman province.
He was assigned to the 793rd Military Police Battalion, 3rd Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, which is out of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska.
Voakes was a 2009 graduate of Baraga High School, where he played basketball.
Snyder says Voakes "courageously served" the nation with "pride and honor."
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