Posted on: Tuesday, July 5, 2005

Virginia SEAL followed dad's footsteps

Advertiser Staff

Lt. Cmdr. Erik S. Kristensen, 33, was the son of a career Navy officer who followed in his father's footsteps but also was comfortable with a pair of Birkenstocks and Shakespeare.

Kristensen was among the eight sailors and eight soldiers killed in the June 28 helicopter crash on a rescue mission to find missing SEALs in the Kunar province of Afghanistan.

Kristensen was born at the Portsmouth Naval Medical Center, the only son of retired Rear Adm. Edward K. Kristensen, according to a report in the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk.

While the family never pushed the younger Kristensen to enter the military, he followed his father's footsteps and went to Annapolis, where he graduated with honors in 1997. A gifted writer, his mother Suzanne "Sam" Kristensen said, Erik Kristensen loved reading Shakespeare and Herman Melville.

Kristensen, who was single, also loved being in the water, and lived near the ocean in Virginia Beach where he was assigned to SEAL Team 10.

At one point, Kristensen debated applying for law school or trying out as a SEAL. The Navy won out and Kristensen finished his SEAL training in 2001, the Virginian-Pilot said.

Kristensen spoke French and had been selected as an Olmsted Foundation Scholar to study at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris next year.

Well over 6 feet tall, Kristensen was "a big puppy" and "a laid-back young man" who rarely spoke of his deployments, Sam Kristensen said.

She said her son will be buried in his Birkenstocks.