The Foreign Service Journal, February 2005

cover letter to a gentleman named in the autobiography as the retired general’s personal assistant. I had never heard of Col. Larry Wilkerson, USA (ret.), before read- ing the book, but I wrote to him in the hope that he would ask Mr. Powell to sign it for my cousin. About three weeks later, I received a phone call from one very excited Army officer-in-the- making. The retired general not only signed the book, he hand- wrote a full-page letter of encouragement to her. Citizen Powell’s private act of kindness and that of Col. Wilkerson’s, eight years ago, is not only a family heir- loom but remains a great source of inspiration to us. My cousin is still in the Army, and I am a newly mint- ed FSO after completing 4 1 / 2 years of active-duty service as a naval officer. There are people in this world you would gladly follow through the gates of hell with a can of gasoline and a big book of matches. I am honored to have been led by such a man. Michael Turner 119th A-100 Jakarta v Rocket Science As vice president and, later, president of AFSA during Secretary Powell’s first 2 1 / 2 years in office, I can attest to numerous examples of his personal intervention on behalf of the Foreign Service and the broader State Department. For example, every budget cycle Sec. Powell force- fully weighed in with the Office of Management and Budget and with Congress when each, in turn, pro- posed trimming the diplomatic readiness budget that he sought. He personally lobbied members of Congress to drop the proposal to move the visa adjudi- cation function to the Department of Homeland Security. There are many other examples, but instead of adding another voice to sing the praise of Colin Powell, my goal here is to shine light on the critical work done by his subordinates in revitalizing diplomat- ic readiness during the past four years. Top kudos go to Under Secretary of State for Management Grant Green. As he drove the implementation of innu- merable management improve- ments, he would often depreciate his own efforts, saying, “It’s not rocket science.” Each time he said that to me, I replied that, while getting the changes done might not require rocket science, they were certainly accomplishments that had eluded his many prede- cessors. For example, I remember stumbling across a 1954 report lamenting that it took two years to hire a new FSO. That was still the case in 2001, when Grant Green was sworn in, but it is no longer. Next, we owe a debt of gratitude to Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. Like Secretary Powell, he also intervened personally with the White House and Congress on budget and other issues affect- ing diplomatic readiness. Inside the building, his role in scrubbing bureau budget requests gave added cred- ibility to the final consolidated funding request. Three directors general played pivotal roles in the revitalization of human resources at State. Marc Grossman was the original proponent of the Diplomatic Readiness Initiative. Ruth Davis pushed through numerous changes during the middle of the Secretary’s term. Robert Pearson worked to lock in the last of the Powell-era improvements. During almost the whole period, Ruth Whiteside held the key position of principal deputy assistant secretary for human resources. Other assistant secretaries also deserve kudos for reinventing their respective bureaus: William Eaton in Administration, Charles Williams at Overseas Buildings Operations, Katherine Peterson at the Foreign Service Institute, and Maura Harty at Consular Affairs. Assistant Secretary Paul Kelly in Legislative Affairs played a key role in winning State’s budget battles. Below the assistant-secretary level, there are a hun- dred others who I would mention if space permitted. They served not only in the above-mentioned offices, but also in the Bureau of Information Resource Management, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and the Bureau of Resource Management. Kudos to one F O C U S F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 5 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 55 In many ways, he brought the State Department into the 21st century, and assuredly improved employee morale across the board.