SEAL. Friend. Son. Hero.

SEAL. Friend. Son. Hero.
FRIDAY, MAY 2, 2014
The Erik S. Kristensen Klassic brings together family, friends,
golfers, volunteers, donors and sponsors to celebrate Erik’s
life and his commitment to being a Man for Others while
giving the full measure in service to our Nation. The Klassic
raises funds to help families of active duty military personnel
afford an education at Erik’s high school alma mater, Gonzaga
College High School.
To all of our friends, families, golfers, volunteers, sponsors
and donors: Thank You for making The Klassic possible.
We especially thank Cindy Heller and her team at The
Courses at Andrews for their hospitality; Ken Schulz
at Abundance Media for his innovative strategic
communications guidance; Thomasina Armwood for her
accounting prowess and Priscilla Flynn for her presentation
creativity; Hargrove for its generosity with our signs and
banners; Jeff Reid/Sierra Nevada and Matt Stanton/Beam for
the kind beverages; and Hank Isaac with River Rock Creative
and Tricia Reyda with McArdle Solutions for their incredible
insight in designing this program.
Most importantly, we thank Sam and Ed for sharing Erik with
us and letting us honor Erik each year through The Klassic.
To Erik!
2014 ADMIRAL SPONSORS
2014 CAPTAIN SPONSORS
The Rathjen Family
ERIK S. KRISTENSEN ’90
Known as “Spider” to all his classmates and teammates, Erik was a proud
1990 graduate of Gonzaga. While on Eye Street, Erik was a scholar, a football player, a lacrosse player, and a trumpet player in the band. While in the
band, Erik achieved the ranks of First Chair, Section Leader, and Co-Concert
Master. A gentle giant with a kind soul and unique sense of humor, he also
earned the rank of Eagle Scout and poured himself into all of the activities in
which he participated.
After graduation from Gonzaga, Erik attended one year of prep school at
Andover before attending the United States Naval Academy. Erik earned his
varsity letter in heavyweight crew at Navy before graduating with an English
major and French minor in 1995.
After several years of service, Erik knew he wanted to be a Navy SEAL but
was told that he was too old and would not be able to make it. Instead of
listening to those who told him he could not, he chose instead to work to
achieve his future. After failing once to make the SEALs, he tried again.
Overcoming injury and obstacles, Erik finally realized his dream and became
a SEAL and joined SEAL Team 10 based at Naval Amphibious Base Little
Creek in Norfolk, VA. On 28 June 2005 in Afghanistan, Erik led a mission to
help four fellow friends and SEALs who had come under heavy enemy fire.
The helicopter that he, seven other SEAL members, and eight Army Special
Forces members were in was shot down. Erik was buried with full honors at
the Naval Academy and rests among our Nation’s heroes as one of them.
True to his love of learning, Erik had been awarded an Olmsted Foundation
Scholarship and was to have studied at the Institute for Political Studies in
Paris in 2006. In his honor, Erik’s family, classmates, friends, and those
who were inspired by him founded The LCDR Erik S. Kristensen ’90, USN,
Memorial Scholarship Fund. The fund assists Gonzaga students whose families serve in the United States Armed Forces. It will forever remind Erik’s
fellow Eagles of what it means to be a Man for Others.
WHY DO WE CALL HIM “SPIDER”?
Erik transferred into Gonzaga as a junior. He had learned much of the school
through his cousin who had just graduated and two cousins who would
become alumnae of nearby Georgetown Visitation. Growing up as the son
of a Naval officer, Erik was used to going to new places and making friends.
He hit the ground running on Eye Street. Erik was not a small teenager. His
height was as obvious from far away as it was close up. The first group of
students he met were the players trying out with him for the football team.
Under the blaring Washington, DC, August sun and humidity, there he was,
smiling and making friends.
High school boys can be a tough crowd. Bravado and ego cut a large swath,
especially in football. Competition was fierce for roster spots that summer,
and here came the new kid, gunning for a piece of the pie. Erik was what
everyone would come to know as his jovial self, never lording over smaller
players, always helping guys off the ground, and just taking in his new
environment.
While Erik was very tall, he still had some filling out to do. He had not yet
added all the mass to his body that would one day make him one of the
Nation’s elite Navy SEALs. As a result, getting into low stances was at times
challenging, and you could see him getting as low as he could. As he sank
down, his knees and elbows would protrude into the air, and you could tell
if Erik was the one in a drill as his great limbs clearly identified him. At one
point, one of the toughest seniors sauntered up to Erik and asked, “Say, you
don’t mind if I call you ‘spider’ do you?”
Indeed, he looked very much like a spider with his arms and legs supporting
his core, especially in that low stance. And so, he became Spider. Erik loved
his nickname—it was evidence how, extremely quickly, he was one of the
guys, an accepted member of the Gonzaga family, especially among his fellow
football players. More importantly, it evidenced how Erik, in all his friendliness,
brought out the best in everyone. Even an older student who did not know
him wanted to talk to him, be his friend, give him a nickname. Erik truly was
everyone’s friend—studying in the classroom, playing in the orchestra, or
playing on the football and lacrosse fields. He was true to himself in each
arena. But, to his Gonzaga classmates, he was simply Spider.
To Erik!
THE LCDR ERIK S. KRISTENSEN ‘90, USN,
MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP FUND
The LCDR Erik S. Kristensen ’90, USN, Memorial Scholarship Fund was
established in Erik’s honor by his family, classmates, and friends. The idea
for the Scholarship Fund started with Erik himself.
When Erik interviewed at The Olmsted Foundation for a prestigious
scholarship that he earned, the interviewer asked a very simple question: if
you won the lottery, what would you do with the money? Erik’s first answer
showed his love and dedication to his parents, Sam and Ed Kristensen. Erik
responded that he would pay off his parents’ mortgage. Secondly, Erik said
that he would establish a scholarship fund to provide tuition assistance to
students at his high school alma mater whose families served in the military.
As the son of a career Naval officer, Erik knew firsthand how his parents
worked hard and sacrificed to send him to a school providing a premier
education.
Erik’s friends and family took on his goal and, in his name, made it happen.
Thanks to the generosity of Erik’s family, friends, Gonzaga and Naval
Academy classmates and alumni, and supporters of The Klassic, Erik’s fund
was established in 2008 and fully endowed within one year of its creation.
Erik’s fund has grown in the years since and now supports three students
from military families. We hope that the proceeds from The Seventh Annual
Klassic will allow us to fund a fourth student.
To Support the Fund, Visit:
kristensenklassic.com
Seeing My Friend Depicted
in ‘Lone Survivor’
By JOHN ISMAY
I dreaded the idea of seeing my old roommate’s death depicted on screen in the movie
“Lone Survivor.” But when I saw a pair of Birkenstocks walking away from the camera on
the big screen, I knew someone had taken the time to get the details right. Someone really
cared about this story.
The actor Eric Bana plays the role of my friend, Erik Kristensen, a Navy SEAL officer
killed in Afghanistan on June 28, 2005. I’d known Erik since I was a kid — he’d gone to
Gonzaga College High School in Washington with my older brother Dave, and they later
rowed crew together at the U.S. Naval Academy. A few years later, I followed them to
Gonzaga and then rowed at the Academy, too. We’d known each other for 15 years, and
we were roommates when he went through SEAL training in Coronado, Calif., and I was
stationed on a destroyer across the bay in 2000.
Mr. Bana said of Erik: “He’s a guy I would have gotten along with had I gotten to meet
him.”
A good story is in the details, and Mr. Bana himself ensured those details were included.
Here’s the back story.
Operation Red Wings
Lt. Cmdr. Erik Kristensen was the Task Unit Commander when a SEAL mission that went
terribly wrong. On this operation, 19 Americans died and only one SEAL, Petty Officer
Marcus Luttrell, lived to tell the story. The movie, the book — it’s Petty Officer Luttrell’s
story.
His four-man SEAL team deployed to the mountainous region of Afghanistan near the
Pakistan border to begin surveillance on a Taliban leader named Ahmad Shah, but their
location was discovered and they were soon outnumbered by enemy fighters.
On the mountaintop, the four SEALs radioed for help, and Erik personally led the
response. But his helicopter was shot down before it could deploy Erik and the rescue
team.
The Movie
I already knew the ending, and didn’t want to see the movie. But when Erik’s mom, Sam
Kristensen, asked some of his friends to accompany Erik’s cousins, Jen and Allison, to see
an advance screening of “Lone Survivor,” I went.
You always do what a gold star mother asks.
As the story progressed, an actor appeared on screen wearing utilities with the name
KRISTENSEN, but of course, it wasn’t Erik. Not our Erik.
But then I saw a glimpse of something that made me think of my friend. In the film, when
communication with Petty Officer Luttrell’s reconnaissance team was lost, a petty officer
named Shane Patton woke up Commander Kristensen — Mr. Bana — to update him on
the situation. And as Mr. Bana walked away, the movie cut to a shot of his feet shuffling
down the hall.
He was wearing Erik’s favorite sandals: Birkenstocks.
Now there are maybe a few dozen people in the world who’d see that scene and
immediately grasp the significance: Erik was rarely without his Birkenstocks, and was
even buried with a pair on his feet.
How did that get into the movie?
I wanted to know. So I emailed the production studio and ended up with a 30-minute
interview with the actor.
“I Really Loved That Side of Him”
When asked about how he prepared for the role of playing Erik, Mr. Bana said, “There’s
this fine line where you go digging for information as much as you can get in a short
amount of time.” He added, “And there are a few constants in Erik’s character I loved
reading about.”
One of them was Erik’s humility.
Despite his rank, Mr. Bana said he realized, “he didn’t take himself too seriously.”
“I know that’s a common theme with Special Forces,” Mr. Bana said. “But when the time
came for orders to be given, he assumed that mantle and was extremely capable. I really
loved that side of him.”
“The other constant was his sense of humor,” Mr. Bana continued. “He just seemed like
a real interesting guy. A guy I know I would’ve gotten along with if I’d gotten the chance to
meet him ”
With all the research he did on Erik, Mr. Bana acknowledged that “Lone Survivor” was a
movie, not a documentary.
“At the end of the day, you’ve got to turn up and back your instinct that you know enough
about him, but the real job now is you’ve got to do a good job as an actor,” he said.
“Because we can all have these great intentions to honor everybody — and that can fail
if we allow the overwhelming sense of responsibility to cloud our instincts as actors or our
judgment as co-storyteller.
“Fortunately, the story is so compelling, and the beats of Erik within our film are really
strong.”
At a premiere of “Lone Survivor” in Los Angeles, Mr. Bana met Erik’s parents: Sam,
his mom, and Ed, his father, a retired two-star Navy admiral. “It was great to get a
chance to meet them,” Mr. Bana said. “It meant a lot.”
Mr. Bana said his research had turned up a few mentions of Erik wearing
Birkenstocks, and the fact that he was even buried wearing a pair.
“The day when we were shooting the scene where Patton comes and knocks on the
door and wakes me up, I was telling Pete [Peter Berg, the director] the story about
the Birkenstocks, and he said, ‘That’s great, let’s put you in Birkenstocks.’ So he
called the props and the wardrobe department, and they got us a pair straight away.”
“There’s always a way of someone showing individuality without bucking the system,”
Mr. Bana said, “so a little detail can be really important.”
John Ismay is a former U.S. Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal officer
and a member of Columbia Journalism School’s class of 2014. You can
follow him on his blog and on Twitter.
2014 MIDSHIPMEN SPONSORS
2014 HOLE SPONSORS
Frog’s Hole
Josh Brady, Class of ‘90
Sean Clifford
Matan, Inc.
People to People Ambassador Programs
Tom and Jeanette McHale
Supporting a “MAN FOR OTHERS”:
The Slaters of Gonzaga: Jack (‘13) & Ridge (‘15)
Gonzaga Alumni Association
Michael Marrion (‘90) and Family
For Erik! With Love and Great Memories, Uncle Fred, Aunt Sally,
Steve, Danielle, Jen, Sean, Al, and Ollie.
Pablo Perez (‘90) and Americana Grocery
Urgo Hotels
Dr. & Mrs.Kevin Murphy and sons in celebration of Erik’s life and
his inspiration to others
Mrs. JoAnn V. Palmer: To Erik, a boy who loved his black cat
The Boyle Family is Proud to Honor an American Hero!
The Brodnik Family
Jake Seher
The Courses at Andrews
“There is nothing like him left for gallantry and conduct in battle. It was not a
foolish passion for fighting for he was the most gentle of all human creatures and
often lamented the cruel necessity of it, but it was a principle of duty which all
men owed their country in defense of her laws and liberty. He valued life only
as it enabled him to do good, and would not preserve it by any act he thought
unworthy. He is gone, and I shall lament him as long as I remain.”
—Vice Admiral “Old Cuddie” Collingwood on the loss of Admiral Horatio Nelson
To Support The LCDR Erik S. Kristensen ’90, USN,
Memorial Scholarship Fund, visit:
kristensenklassic.com