The Foreign Service Journal, October 2007

6 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 PTSD and the FS Well, Steve Kashkett was spot on again in his VP Voice column in the July/August AFSA News , “PTSD and the Foreign Service.” Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is a physical ramifi- cation of the personal and professional pressures Foreign Service employees experience daily, and not just in Iraq and Afghanistan. How about the stress caused by terrorist attacks and car bombs in Syria and Saudi Arabia? And let us not forget the two embassies de- stroyed in Africa in 1998. I was assigned to Embassy Tel Aviv from late 1999 through late 2002. During that period we experi- enced the intifada uprising by the Palestinian people and violent attacks from Hamas and Hezbollah against the government of Israel. Suicide bombings were a weekly if not a daily occurrence for two years of my three-year assignment. Here are a few examples: • I was walking home from dinner on the promenade 300 meters south of the embassy when a suicide bom- ber blew up a teen/young adult disco, killing 21. • A suicide bomber targeted Mike’s Hamburger Joint, immediately be- hind the embassy, killing well-known and well-liked employees and cus- tomers. • Two blocks away from the em- bassy, on Ben Yehuda Street, a bus driver sat in his seat, apparently asleep. In reality, he was dead, killed when a suicide bomber blew up the bus, peeling its roof back like the proverbial sardine can. • At the Carmel Market, fruits and vegetables were splattered among the carnage after a suicide bomber blew it up, killing numerous people. • The Park Hotel was destroyed during a passover seder when a sui- cide bomber struck, killing 27 people who were only celebrating their faith. Throughout that period, those of us posted in Israel received no danger pay. No differential. No cost-of-living allowance. At the time, it was politically incorrect to say it was dangerous to live and work there. The attitude of the department and em- bassy seemed to be that because the suicide bombers’ attacks were not directly aimed at Americans, there was no problem. Instead we got restrictions from the regional security officer on: riding public transportation, grocery-shop- ping before or after Shabbat, grocery- shopping before or after any holiday, going to the mall, going to movie theaters and patronizing restaurants. We could not be out after 8 p.m., go to Israeli homes, hold a Marine Ball, or travel to Jerusalem (off-limits for almost seven months). What else did I get out of these two years? Sleeplessness (my own); physi- cal ramifications of stress (my own); anger (everyone in the embassy); depression (everyone in the embassy); irritability (everyone in the embassy); frustration (everyone in the embassy). The only bright star in this morass of chaos was the strong shoulder and sympathetic ear of a British registered nurse (whose husband was with the British Embassy). Jean Bowskill, wherever you are, “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” Lee Ackermann Information Programs Officer Embassy Damascus Iraq Service Reward? The State Department has a special obligation to Foreign Service members who have volunteered to serve at our most dangerous outposts in Iraq. Here is my reward for ser- vice in Iraq. In October 2005, while serving as a provincial action officer in Basrah, I received a handshake on an onward assignment as a public diplomacy officer at USNATO Brussels. But, in January 2006, this and 27 other posi- tions were eliminated as part of global repositioning. I accepted the decision without question. After all, we needed every- one we could get to serve in Iraq. If sacrificing my onward assignment would help, I was not going to complain. Still, finding another assignment outside of the regular bidding cycle was a challenge, especially for those of us in Iraq outside of Baghdad. The DG’s commitment to ensure one of our top five choices for onward assignments came into effect in May 2006, so it did not apply to us. In any case, this commitment holds limited value when onward assignments can be eliminated at any stage of the process, including after paneling. A list of new global repositioning L ETTERS