The Foreign Service Journal, June 2013

48 JUNE 2013 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL AFSA NEWS Heroes Continued from page 45 young Afghans the opportu- nity to have a better life.” Ambassador John Christopher Stevens served as the U.S. ambassador to Libya from June to Septem- ber 2012. Killed on Sept. 11, 2012, in a terrorist attack in Benghazi, Amb. Stevens was the first U.S. ambassador to die on duty since 1988, and the eighth U.S. ambassador to be killed in the line of duty. Stevens joined the Foreign Service in 1991, and served in Jerusalem, Damascus, Cairo and Riyadh early in his career, in addition to assign- ments in Washington, D.C. He had served in Libya twice previously, first as the deputy chief of mission from 2007 to 2009, and then as special representative to the national transitional council during the 2011 Libyan Revolution. Sean Patrick Smith was serving as a Foreign Service information technology specialist when he was killed during the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attacks in Beng- hazi. Smith, originally from San Diego, enlisted in the Air Force in July 1995, and served for six years, first as a ground radio maintenance specialist before being promoted to staff sergeant in August 2000. Smith was awarded the Air Force Com- mendation Medal. He joined the Foreign Service in 2002, serving in Baghdad, Pretoria, Montreal and The Hague. Ty Woods spent 20 years in the U.S. Navy before becom- ing a security specialist in 2010. As a Navy SEAL, Woods was awarded the Bronze Star Medal with combat ‘V’ Device for valor in Iraq. He led 12 direct action raids and 10 reconnaissance missions that resulted in the capture of 34 enemy insurgents in the volatile Al Anbar province. Upon retirement as a senior chief petty officer in 2007, Woods joined DS, serving multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Central America and the Middle East. Woods was killed in the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Benghazi. Glen Doherty served for nine years in the U.S. Navy as a Navy SEAL with multiple combat deployments. In 2005 he left the Navy and spent the next four years working as a security and intelligence specialist for various federal agencies conducting operations in such high-threat regions as Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan and Afghanistan. He had exten- sive experience teaching and training operators around the world in a range of disci- plines, and was an accom- plished pilot and nationally certified paramedic. Doherty was on a mission when he was killed in a terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2012. Ragaei S. Abdelfattah was a U.S. Agency for International Development Foreign Service officer. He died on Aug. 8, 2012, in a suicide bombing attack in Kunar province, Afghanistan. A native of Egypt and a naturalized American citizen who strove to represent U.S. core values abroad, Abdelfattah believed in the importance of Afghans having opportunities to bet- ter their lives—from Afghan girls having access to school, to poor farmers having the ability to register family- owned land. Prior to joining USAID, Abdelfattah had accrued more than 15 years of professional development experience working for the United Nations Development Program in Egypt and the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commis- sion in the Washington, D.C., area. Abdelfattah used his architecture and urban plan- ning knowledge and skills to help others in every way he could. At the time of his death, he was also working on a Ph.D. at Virginia Tech University. Joseph Gregory Fandino joined the Foreign Service immediately following completion of law school at Columbia University, becom- ing one of the first Hispanic American Foreign Service officers. His first post was Santo Domingo, followed by Ciudad Trujillo, also in the Dominican Republic. He then served in Ottawa, followed by the Miami Reception Center, where he assisted Cuban refugees and visit- ing dignitaries from Latin America, then Bilbao and Madrid. In September 1971, he was assigned to USAID’s Civil Operations and Revo- lutionary and Development Support program in Vietnam. He was first an ethnic affairs officer stationed in Xuan Loc, Long Khanh province, and then at Bien Hoa Air Force Base outside of Saigon. He died there on June 27, 1972, in the line of duty. Francis J. Savage ’s Foreign Service career began fol- lowing two years in the U.S. Navy. He was first assigned to Iceland in 1950, where he worked in the mailroom. He was then transferred to Mar- seilles, where he met his wife, Doreen Welsh. Shortly there- after, Savage and his family were transferred to Trinidad, followed by Tripoli. After working for the Department of State for several years, Savage switched to USAID. His first assignment with the agency was as general services officer in Mogadishu. He volunteered to serve as a provincial representative in Vietnam, only to be injured in a bombing at the My Canh floating restaurant. After a year in and out of Bethesda Naval Hospital, he volun- teered to return to Quang Tri Province, Vietnam. Within three months, he became critically ill from his original wounds and died in Saigon Hospital in the spring of 1967. To view AFSA’s Memo- rial Plaque Ceremony in its entirety, please see www. cspanvideo.org/program/ PlaqueC. n