The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2004

Stoltzfus and Rebecca Dineen; a sister, Winifred S. Vogt, and six grandchil- dren. Wayne A. Swedenburg , 78, retired FSO, died May 16 of prostate cancer at his home in Middleburg, Va. A native of Salina, Kan., and a first- generation Swedish-American, Swe- denburg served during his high school years as an officer cadet in the Civil Air Patrol, and joined the U.S. Army Air Corps Reserve. He was called to active duty upon graduation from high school, and served as a crew member of a B-29 during World War II. Swedenburg joined the Foreign Service in 1948. His first posting was to Jerusalem, where he witnessed the end of the British Mandate in Palestine and the establishment of the State of Israel. During this hectic time he was held at gunpoint on two occasions by terrorists, and later was wounded by mortar shrapnel, requir- ing his evacuation to the U.S. and hos- pitalization at Bethesda Naval Medical Center. Subsequent postings included assignments in Europe, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, and Africa. During most of his assign- ments war, insurrection and civil unrest prevailed. Mr. Swedenburg once reported that he had forgotten the number of times he had come under sniper fire, but that he could recall one instance when he came under rocket fire and another when he was strafed by aircraft, both times while performing duties for the U.S. government. In the mid-1950s he spent one year at the Pacific Proving Grounds on the island of Bikini, where he was in charge of security during the testing of an atomic bomb. He served three tours of duty in Indochina, first when it was still a French colony and then in the 1960s and 1970s. Mr. Swedenburg was instrumental in assisting in the escape from communist grasp of sever- al longtime U.S.-employed locals there, and performed a similar self- appointed mission while serving dur- ing the 1971 Pakistan-India War, when the country of Bangladesh was formed and ethnic rivalries caused so much bloodshed. Mr. Swedenburg received two Superior Honor awards for out- standing and heroic work in the U.S. J U LY- A U G U S T 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 81 I N M E M O R Y