The Foreign Service Journal, June 2004

This column will appear after Mem- orial Day, but I write it as I ponder what to say on Foreign Affairs Day, May 7, when AFSA pays annual tribute to our colleagues who have died in the service of their country and whose names are carved on the memorial plaques we placed in the State Depart- ment’s lobby many years ago. As of this writing, we do not have to carve any new Foreign Service names into the marble. So I guess one could say we are lucky this year. But every fresh report of a suicide bombing, con- voy attack, roadside bomb or RPG launch makes me feel that our luck is that much closer to running out. The Foreign Service community came very close to suffering loss this year. It was the courage and sacrifice of others which kept one or more of us from get- ting killed. Natividad Mendez Ramos, a Salvadoran soldier, was killed in April outside Najaf, Iraq. Our Foreign Service colleagues in Najaf have testi- fied to the bravery of the Salvadoran soldiers when militias attacked them. The Washington Post recently report- ed: “Eight Blackwater contractors assigned to protect a building in Najaf fought alongside four Marines and three Salvadoran soldiers to defeat a determined attack by hundreds of Iraqi militia members.” When helicopters finally reached the Najaf garrison to drop ammunition and retrieve a wounded Marine, the defenders were down to fewer than 10 rounds per man. Nor was that a unique event — see the article on p. 28 of this issue, “Foreign Service Firefight,” for an eye- witness account of one such incident. And last October, John Branchizio, John Linde Jr. and Mark Parson died when a remote-controlled bomb tore apart their car in a diplomatic convoy. The three DynCorp contractors were guarding U.S. diplomats entering the Gaza Strip to interview candidates for Fulbright scholarships. Our colleagues in that convoy, like those caught in the attacks in Najaf, must wonder how and why they sur- vived. Why were the lives of their pro- tectors cut short, left to be mourned and memorialized on marble head- stones, while they are allowed to fulfill their lives? That is what the names on the AFSA plaques represent — unfulfilled lives. That is what the names in all the national cemeteries represent—unful- filled lives. The names on our plaques go back to 1780 when William A. Palfrey drowned at sea en route to his post in Paris. When I first walked into the Main State lobby in April 1965 there was just one plaque and it was half-full. A few months later a terrorist bomb went off outside the U.S. embassy in Saigon, and the terror toll has not slack- ened since. These plaques represent the Foreign Service’s compact with the American people. We know the risks and acknowledge the dangers, yet we willingly expose ourselves to them to advance the cause of peace and securi- ty. In spite of the nightly litany of car bombings in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel and Pakistan, our Foreign Service col- leagues eagerly enter their bids for these posts. Fully one-third of the cur- rent entry-level class of generalists says they want to go to Iraq now. A reporter askedme to explain this dedication. He couldn’t understand it. The next time you walk through the C Street lobby, stop and think what each name on the AFSA Memorial Plaques represents. My Foreign Service classmate Dennis W. Keogh’s name is there. He was blown up by a bomb in Namibia in 1984. He was part of a peacekeeping mission. And think about the names which are not on our list but represent lives equally unfulfilled, lives lost while protecting others. P RESIDENT ’ S V IEWS In Memoriam B Y L OUISE K. C RANE J U N E 2 0 0 4 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 5 Louise K. Crane is AFSA vice presi- dent for State. The next time you walk through the C Street lobby, stop and think about what each name on the AFSA Memorial Plaques represents.