The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2010

farmmy family still owns and occupies, two miles west of Odin, Minn. We are the descendants of Norwegian farm- ers, and there is a Laingen Farm in Norway, too. Sometimes when I’m asked why I joined the Foreign Serv- ice, I joke: “Because we couldn’t all be farmers!” I attended a one-room school in Butterfield, Minn., with 20 other stu- dents. At the time, I didn’t have any specific ambitions other than to get through it and go on to college. But while I was a junior at St. Olaf College, the war came along, and I had to de- cide whether to enlist or what I would do. My home state is known as “the Land of 10,000 Lakes,” so we have lots of water. Maybe that’s why I joined the U.S. Navy. In any event, when the Navy sent me to the University of Dubuque, in Iowa, that was the first time I’d ever left Minnesota. I was there as part of the V-12 program, which took young men from colleges and sent them to intensive training at universities so we could be commis- sioned as naval officers, while also earning a bachelor’s degree from our original college. One of my colleagues in that program — not in Iowa, but at the University of North Dakota —was Warren Christopher, who, of course, later became Secretary of State. During my time in Dubuque, I was transferred to the U.S. Navy Supply Corps School at Wellesley College in Massachusetts for additional training. As a result, I’mone of the fewmen who can say, “I’m a graduate of Well- esley!” FSJ: Where did you serve in the Navy during World War II? LBL: I was commissioned as an of- ficer in the Navy Supply Corps, and served in the Pacific theater for more than two years. After receiving my commission as an ensign in June 1944, I was transferred in August to the am- phibious training base in Little Rock, Va. Then, in October 1944, I was the Supply Corps officer for one of the squadrons of landing ships, medium, in the invasion forces being sent to the Philippines the next month. I was sta- tioned there through February 1946, when I was promoted to lieutenant junior grade. I completed my military service in Newport, R.I., and was dis- charged in August 1946. While I didn’t stay in the Navy, I’m very proud of being a former naval offi- cer. All three of my sons, Bill, Chip and Jim, and one of my daughters-in-law became naval officers, as well. One son is a captain in the U.S. Navy today, and the other two are retired commanders. I even have a stepgreat-granddaughter whose name is Navy — we feel that strongly about our experience and re- spect for the United States Navy. FSJ: At what point did you know you wanted to join the Foreign Service? I assume your time in the military was a factor. LBL: Yes, I had joined the Navy to see the world. The more I saw, the more I wanted to see. Long before that, however, I re- J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 41 Bruce Laingen with Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, 1956. Ambassador Tom Pickering, chairman of the American Academy of Diplomacy, con- fers the Excellence in Diplomacy Award on Amb. Laingen upon his retirement as AAD president in 1996.