The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2003

400 people. Secretary of State Colin Powell andUSAIDAdministratorAndrew Natsios assisted AFSA President John Naland in dedicating six new names inscribedon theplaque. Fiveof the sixdied inyears past butwerehonorednowdue to the 2001 change in the criteria to include Foreign Service members who died over- seas in the line of duty (in addition to the previous criteria of “heroic or other inspi- rational circumstances”). This year’s hon- orees were: —LaurenceFoley,USAID, Jordan2002 —Jerry Cook, State, Madagascar 1978 —Richard Coulter, State, Iran 1975 —HowardFunk Jr., State, Kenya 1972 —Oscar Holder, USAID, Nepal 1962 —Sidney Jacques,USAID,Nepal 1962 Among theguests at the ceremonywere the families and friends of these sixForeign Service members who paid the ultimate price for serving our country. AFSA PresidentNalandextended to themAFSA’s sincere gratitude for the contributions that their lovedoneshadmade servingAmerica. Healsorecognizedthe familymembers and friends for the sacrifices that theyhadmade and the pain that they had endured. The Jordanian ambassador to the U.S. was among the attendees hon- oring the memory of USAID FSO Laurence Foley. SecretaryPowell, inhis remarks, said: “It is fitting that these memorial plaques grace our lobby. They remindall of uswho work here, and visitors fromacross the globewho enter this hall, that ours is amissionof service: service to the nation, service to eachother, service tomankind. ... It is also a mission that frequently entails hardship, and often, all too often, it is a mission that carries great risks, for surely, as our fellow Americans in uniform do, the dedicated menandwomenoftheDepartmentofState family serve and sacrifice on the front lines of freedom... Themenandwomenwhose names are etched before you ... did not expecttoleavethepeopletheylovedsosoon. But on the day that they died, each one of them got out of bed and set forth on their chosen mission of service, service to their fellowcitizens andto thevalues thatwehold dear and share with the rest of the world, and service to the men, women and chil- dren of other lands whose hopes for a bet- ter future are linked to ours.” TheAFSAMemorial Plaque ceremony received substantial coverageby thebroad- castmedia. CNN,MSNBC, andFOXcar- ried excerpts. NBCandABC fed coverage for use by their local affiliates. C-SPAN RadioandAssociatedPressradioalsobroad- cast the ceremony. The first memorial plaque was erected by AFSA in 1933 at a ceremony presided overbySecretaryof StateHenryL. Stimson. With this year’s additions, the AFSA Memorial Plaquehonors a total of 215 fall- encolleagues. The first,WilliamPalfrey,was chosenby theContinentalCongress in1780 to serve as Consul General in France, but was lost at sea en route topost. During the following180years,73otherAmericansdied whileservingabroadinforeignaffairs. Sadly, over the most recent 43 years another 141 names have been added to the plaque — a rateofmore thanthreeayear. Since1975, employees have been killed in 36 different countries. AFSAwarmly thanks Secretary Powell, DirectorGeneralDavis, andForeignAffairs DayCoordinatorPeterWhaley for helping to make the Memorial Plaque ceremony such a success. Thanks also go to the fol- lowing AFSA staff: Executive Director Susan Reardon, Executive Assistant Marc Goldberg, Professional IssuesCoordinator BarbaraBerger, LegislativeAffairsDirector KenNakamura,CommunicationsDirector TomSwitzer, and legislative internSuzanne Sivertsen. ▫ JULY-AUGUST 2003 • AFSA NEWS 3 Continued from page 1 JAY MALLIN JAY MALLIN FOREIGN AFFAIRS DAY USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios speaks at the plaque cere- mony. Family members and guests at the plaque cer- emony. New names added to the memorial plaque. JAY MALLIN