Profile for Erik Archer

Brief biography

Lieutenant Colonel Erik Archer is a native of Fargo, ND and graduated in 2001 from Western Illinois University as a Distinguished Military Graduate. He has a BA in History and a MA in Business and Organizational Security Management. 

Erik’s first duty station was Hanau, Germany with the 127th Military Police (MP) Company where he served as a rear detachment commander, platoon leader, and executive officer. Erik then deployed with the 127th to Baghdad, Iraq in 2004. He assumed duties as a platoon leader twice during that deployment - once when a platoon leader was relieved and again when a platoon leader was killed in action. Upon redeployment, he joined the 709th MP Battalion and deployed with them to Mosul and Tikrit ISO OIF 05-07 where he served as the logistics officer for units geographically dispersed across northern Iraq. Upon completion of MP Captain’s Career Course, Erik joined the 759th MP Battalion at Fort Carson, Colorado and took command of the 127th MP Company, "Speed and Power". There his Soldiers won a "Commandant's 100" Award, recognizing the best 100 MP Soldiers in the Army, won the annual Warfighter Competition at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri recognizing the best three person MP team in the Army and were named the Best MP Company in the Brigade.

Following command, Erik deployed in 2010 to join the 759th MP Battalion in Kabul, Afghanistan where he mentored an Afghan National Police Colonel at the Zone 202 Shamshad Regional Police Headquarters. Erik then redeployed to assume duties as the Fort Carson Installation Provost Marshal where he oversaw all policing operations for Fort Carson and its 80,000 residents. He activated the Special Reaction Team to arrest a suspect accused of two separate shootings on and off-post. The SRT apprehended the armed and dangerous individual without incident.

Deploying a fourth time in 2011, Erik joined RC(SW) and the Marines on Camp Leatherneck in Helmand Province to serve as the Joint Expeditionary Forensics Facility (JEFF) laboratory OIC. His team processed Captured Enemy Material from across Helmand Province and enabled Marines to conduct operations against those targeting Coalition Forces. Following this deployment, he attended the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth and then joined the most decorated MP battalion in the world, the 716th MP Battalion, where he served as the battalion operations officer and executive officer from 2013-2015.

He then spent three years with the Joint Staff in the National Military Command Center at the Pentagon. Erik first served as a J33 Current Operations Action Officer (AO) where he briefed congressional, interagency and senior military representatives before moving to J35 JOD-Africa where he focused on Africa, collaborated on national level operational plans and authored the Secretary of Defense Execute Orders for Operations ODYSSEY LIGHTNING and OAKEN STEEL. He concluded his Joint Staff time as the Executive Officer to the J35 Deputy Director for Regional Operations (Major General George & Brig Gen Cederholm).

He currently serves as the Professor of Military Science for the University of Wisconsin – Lacrosse, Viterbo, and Winona State. Erik is an avid athlete and completed multiple marathons, the Bataan Memorial Death March, the 50 mile JFK50 ultra-marathon, and the burpee mile (don't do this). He is a member of the Fraternal Order of Police, a lifetime member of the VFW and a recipient of the prestigious Order of the Marechaussee in Bronze.

Erik is married to the former Elizabeth Carey, herself a former Army MP officer and WIU graduate, and together they have three vibrant children: Luke (13), Ellie (11) and Finley (8).