The Foreign Service Journal, May 2009

135th A-100 experienced wars, polit- ical unrest, natural disasters and the numerous hardships that the Foreign Service experience encompasses. Un- afraid of such challenges, Brian pushed hard to be assigned to Addis Ababa as a rotational consular/politi- cal-economic officer. Addis Ababa A natural gift for foreign languages served him well as he prepared for Ethiopia. As part of his initial train- ing, Brian received 28 weeks of Amharic, his seventh foreign lan- guage. Like all of us, he took to the training with zeal, knowing that he would soon be called upon to use his language and diplomacy skills to fur- ther U.S. goals in Ethiopia. Yet Brian did not just study Amharic — he im- mersed himself in it, spending time in the Ethiopian communities of Adams Morgan and the U Street corridor in Washington to improve his language and cultural skills. This dedication to his craft put him in good stead when he arrived at post. His fellow officers, his supervisors and the local staff all remarked that Brian took to his assignment with dedication and thoroughly injected himself into the life of the country that was to be 42 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A Y 2 0 0 9 As Brian’s far-too-short life and career are honored, we think of how fortunate we are to have known him, to have called him friend.