The Foreign Service Journal, February 2006

another. There are many variables in the process — e.g., timing — but for those interested in such careers, it is important to start soon after retire- ment, while contacts are current. The informal reserve seems to work reasonably well, except in times of major foreign affairs crises. In 1988, I recommended establishing a formal reserve system with the aim of rationalizing the reserve selection and assignment process and better pre- paring for major emergencies (see “Standing in Reserve,” FSJ , January 1988). Subsequently, the department initiated a semiformal reserve in the 1990s, but it never had much success due to a dearth of funding, limiting legal regulations and a lack of wide political support. Today, as the budgetary squeeze is likely on, the cost of implementing a formal reserve, one in which officers could keep up language, area and other skills, would seem to be prohib- itive. However, with the Iraq experi- ence in mind, it might be useful for a task force or commission to take a seri- ous look at the pros and cons of such a reserve. James F. Relph Jr. Laguna Woods, Calif. My Take on Retirement Within weeks of joining the Foreign Service in 1960 and going to Washington for training I knew I’d found my career. Everyone I met was uniformly friendly and welcoming, and the material was immensely inter- esting. My family, of course, thought it was just a “phase.” But from my first tour in Amman to my last in La Paz, I embraced the Foreign Service life and found every new post a unique experience. When it came to retirement, my tours in the Middle East assured me that I would be happiest in a desert atmosphere. I therefore took quite a few trips exploring various areas in Arizona and New Mexico. The place I found most enticing was Santa Fe. But as my retirement date neared, everything I read indicated that life in Santa Fe might be more expen- sive than I would wish. So I used a book, Retirement Places Rated: What You Need to Know to Plan the Retirement You Deserve (John Wiley & Sons, 2004), to get information on other locales that might interest me. The book advises readers to think of their own personal interests — golf, bowling, medical facilities, even movies. What an eye-opener! I real- ized that a lot of the places that sounded interesting to me, for instance, had only one movie screen, which would not be sufficient to sat- isfy my cinematic interest. While serving in La Paz, Bill and Lou Hedges and I discussed retire- ment quite a lot, and they mentioned Las Cruces, N.M., to me. They were looking seriously at that area and did quite a bit of Internet research on it. As they shared their gleanings with me, it sounded extremely interesting. Contrary to the advice I was given at the Retirement Seminar, I really wanted to be in a town where I did not know anyone. I thought that if I lived where I knew even one person or couple, I would tend to hang back 56 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 6 I was a member of the first Human Rights Country Reports Team assembled to edit and prepare the annual volume for publication. — James F. Relph Jr.