The Foreign Service Journal, September 2010

S E P T E M B E R 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 17 Foreign Service career has never been as glamorous as the popular perception of it might suggest. And as the number of hardship posts and unaccompanied assignments continues to grow, the job of representing the United States overseas has become ever more hazardous to the health of Foreign Service employees and their family members. For instance, a survey earlier this year by the Government Accountability Office, the investiga- tive arm of Congress, found that nearly 40 percent of civilians assigned to jobs in Iraq and Afghanistan — including, but F O C U S O N T H E O F F I C E O F M E D I C A L S E R V I C E S T O Y OUR H EALTH T HE O FFICE OF M EDICAL S ERVICES NOT ONLY TREATS EMPLOYEES BUT EVALUATES THEIR FITNESS FOR DUTY . B ALANCING THOSE ROLES IS A TRICKY BUSINESS . B Y S HAWN Z ELLER Paul Levinson A