The Foreign Service Journal, September 2011

22 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 1 The American company’s security team, by contrast, had no Iraqi mem- bers, and left the wire in three large black Chevy Suburbans, each con- taining up to 12 armed personnel. After repeated traffic incidents, they were despised by the local people. The Italian PRT leader concluded that traveling in such a conspicuous motorcade would destroy the team’s reputation in the local community, undermining good will that had taken years to cultivate and effectively inviting violent attack. Consequently, she would not allow anyone from her team to travel with the Americans. I concurred with her assessment, yet the RSO continued to deny my repeated requests to go out with my Italian colleagues and Aegis. The Italians left the base every day to meet Iraqi con- tacts and monitor projects, while I was confined there. I eventually received permission from the RSO to go on missions with the 82nd and was able to do some work outside the wire. The PRT also converted an abandoned Italian Army base nearby to a neutral area, where we met Iraqis and conducted training. I also hired Iraqi em- ployees to monitor my many projects and to provide me with briefings and photographs, as site visits were im- possible. The RSO also prevented me from working with our al- lies. He denied my request to accompany a Romanian Army unit to its training area outside the wire, and to par- ticipate in a weeklong Australian Army mission. (A non- State Department American team carried out the Austral- ian mission without incident.) It was frustrating to see that even though U.S. taxpay- ers spent millions of dollars to fund my year in Iraq, the State Department effectively tied my hands and prevented me from running a truly effective program. Jon P. Dorschner FSO, Economic Section Embassy Berlin Remember History! As a retired FSO whose career lasted from 1942 to 1980, I would like to contribute a footnote to your discus- sion of the impact of 9/11 on the Foreign Service. History repeats itself and needs to be learned! Back in 1973, I was serving as eco- nomic-commercial counselor and USAID mission director in Addis Ababa. In March of that year, a ter- rorist attack on the Saudi embassy in Khartoum killed the U.S. chargé d’af- faires and the Belgian ambassador, among others. The French embassy then advised us that information from Beirut indicated that the perpetrators had a list of additional Americans to be attacked, including personnel serving both in Africa and the Middle East. My colleagues in Ethiopia and I were all on the list. The State Department advised us that no ransomwould be paid if we or our family members were kidnapped, but that our families could be relocated to a safe place if we wished, either back home or elsewhere. We all remained at post and, thankfully, were not at- tacked. But I share this experience to make the point that the so-called “war on terror” is not new and must always be borne in mind. Roger Ernst FSO, retired Tampa, Fla. Undaunted “Aren’t you afraid?” my classmate asked. It was August 1998, and we had just received news that the U.S. em- bassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam had been bombed. Weeks before, I’d learned about the Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellowship Program, one of two programs now known as the Pickering Fellowships, and I had applied. Though it involved a three-year work commitment in the Foreign Service following graduation, it was a no-brainer for me. I loved the adventure of international travel, I needed the money, and I didn’t have any strong feelings one way or another about a specific career, so long as it was interesting work and comfortably remunerative. (My com- mitment to public service would grow later.) The Foreign Service appeared to be a good fit. As for danger, I was fromDetroit and had traveled a lit- tle bit. I figured the possibility of harm was everywhere. I was also a bit naïve. Following graduation, I joined the 104th A-100 Orien- tation Class at the Foreign Service Institute on Monday, C OVER S TORY I joined the 104th A-100 class on Sept. 10, 2001, bright-eyed and ready for the world. Or so I thought.