Andrew Michael Pedersen-Keel was born June 8, 1984, the only child of Helen Keiser-Pedersen. Riding his bike at 4, partaking in Scouts and sports through grade school, and pocketing some money running a paper route, he enjoyed a wonderful New England childhood. He was always an excellent student, a writer and a bookworm, a handsome one with precocious wit and a knack for just the right kind of mischief. He excelled at Avon Old Farms High School—in class, on the field, among his peers—and was editor of the Avon Record. A coach nicknamed him “PK,” and it stuck.
He only applied to West Point. Surprised when the results of his physical mistakenly deemed him medically disqualified, PK spent Christmas Day writing a rebuttal, and January brought good news of a reversal and admission, only to be rescinded two days later. After a final letter to the Director of Admissions, he was officially admitted in March 2002. At West Point, PK was a member of Company G-4, played lacrosse as a plebe, and later managed the Men’s Gymnastics Team. Friends abounded, with PK at the center of so many of their favorite memories. He was passionate about music and insistent about this or that band’s critical importance. He majored in legal studies, was selected for summer exchange training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and earned the highest grade among 900 classmates in American English literature during his cow year.
He branched Infantry. Ahead of Post Night, he and a best friend had carefully laid plans to land a light infantry assignment together at Fort Drum, NY. When PK’s turn arrived, ahead of his friend on the merit list and with only one Drum billet remaining, he strolled up to the board and proudly selected Fort Hood, TX, leaving the preferred assignment for his classmate. After outlasting the brigade tactical officer, PK graduated and received his commission.
He had volunteered to attend Air Assault School during graduation leave before arriving at Fort Benning, GA in the summer of 2006, completing the Infantry Officer Basic Course in November and earning his Ranger Tab in the spring of 2007. His first assignment was light infantry after all, serving as a platoon leader in the newly mobilized 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division at Fort Hood. He deployed to Kandahar Province, Afghanistan in July 2008 and would write home about admiring his soldiers, overflowing with satisfaction. “I look forward to every day with them.” He led his troops with distinction on scores of combat missions during the 12-month deployment, earning his first of three Bronze Star Medals and the Army Commendation Medal. He was pinned captain by General David Petraeus while downrange.
After his tour he enjoyed some summer R&R, but by the fall of 2009 he was back in the fray and successfully completed Special Forces Assessment and Selection at Camp Mackall, NC. His next stop was the Captains Career Course at Fort Knox, KY. He loved living in Louisville, but after overindulging the Kentucky Derby he focused himself squarely on the forthcoming Special Forces Qualification Course at Fort Bragg, NC. He designed and built a house in nearby Southern Pines and things were good, surrounded by a critical mass of classmates and great friends. He’d often quote the band Radiohead, “Everything in its right place.” The highlight of the Qualification Course for PK was the notorious Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) School. Something real after over a year of coursework, it reminded him of the path he was on, that this was only the beginning. He progressed through small unit tactics and the culminating exercise, Robin Sage, peering highly in both and donning his Green Beret in June 2012. Following assignment to 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, he was back in Afghanistan by September. Commander of Operational Detachment A (ODA) 3126, he sent an email to friends titled simply, “Press the button,” another favorite song lyric and an illustration of his readiness, his eagerness to serve. “It’s been a long road for me to get here. I’m stoked.”
On the morning of March 11, 2013, a flash headline indicated multiple Special Operations Forces casualties had been sustained in Wardak Province, and nightfall brought the harrowing calls from Connecticut. “Andrew was killed in Afghanistan today.” He was escorted home by the same classmate and friend for whom he’d passed on Fort Drum so many years earlier, by then a Green Beret himself in the same battalion, with many more friends awaiting him on the tarmac in Dover, DE. Hundreds attended his funeral Mass, and he was laid to rest on March 27, 2013, a cold and gloomy morning at Arlington National Cemetery. Major General Chris Haas, then commander of Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force–Afghanistan, posthumously awarded him the Meritorious Service Medal.
To survive someone like PK is to endure his absence forever. So many of us have experienced his death a thousand times again, in the memories made without him, in the gifts of life we continue to cherish, none of it the same. Yet he remains. So much more than just a memory, he persists in our hearts as we run our own courses on Earth, working to deserve his sacrifice and earn his admiration. Cadet Field Training in 2013 was named for PK, and his plaque reads, “Live, travel, adventure, bless, and don’t be sorry.”
— Patrick Swanson, Friend and Classmate