Erik enlisted in the United States Army as an electronic warfare systems repairer in 1991 assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division and later to units in Stuttgart and Heidelberg, Germany. He deployed in 1995 to Taszar, Hungary in support of Operation JOINT ENDEAVOR before returning to Fort Liberty in 1997 where he applied for and completed the Special Forces Qualification Course and assigned to the 7th Special Forces Group. Erik deployed on several Joint Combined Exchange Training missions to the SOUTHCOM area of operations prior to supporting the Global War on Terrorism. He has four deployments to Afghanistan and one to Iraq between 2006 and 2010, serving as an Operational Detachment – Alpha Weapons and Intelligence Sergeant, Assistant Detachment Commander, Detachment Commander, and Company Operations Warrant Officer before being assigned to the U.S. JFK Special Warfare Center and School as the Company Operations Warrant for the U.S. Army Special Forces, Unconventional Warfare Training Exercise (Robin Sage). After retiring from military service in 2016, he entered the civilian sector as a change leader in Operations for Amazon and eventually bridged into the healthcare industry as a Regional Director of Operations.