The Foreign Service Journal, November 2021

12 NOVEMBER 2021 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Remembering Johnny Young I am not a writer, except for penning sterile medical notes. This, however, is a letter I cannot not write. I just heard of Ambas- sador Johnny Young’s death. As the State Department’s regional medical officer posted in Riyadh, I first met Ambassador Young in 1998 as I visited to serve his mission, U.S. Embassy Manama in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Immediately, I was blown away by the high morale and productivity of his diplomatic team, from the deputy chief of mission all the way down the mission axis. The positive air in the embassy made my clinical demands smaller but also drew me in closer, over the years, to know this skilled leader and diplomat bathed in humility. One evening at my home in Riyadh, I received an urgent call from Manama that Ambassador Young had been hospitalized at the Defense Force Hospital. I scrambled to get on a flight. I found his hospital room on the top floor. It was a VIP suite. However, as I stood at the door, I could not see my ambassador nor his bed. It was strangely quiet. There was no nurse, not even the sound of a medical monitor. I felt like I had walked into an Arabian Gulf version of Longwood Gardens. He was hidden there, festooned in floral foliage and lying peacefully with his eyes closed. I drew near and touched him on his arm. He opened his eyes and smiled. His first words to me, typically selfless and humorous, “Doc, I feel like I am at a wake!” This demonstration of “suffocating” love I saw as a reflection of an outpour- ing from his mission personnel, the Arabs and diverse popula- tion of expatriates on the archi- pelago, and heads of state and senior diplomats in the Arabian Gulf region. To Johnny Young and his beautiful wife, Angie, I say this: We do not leave anything behind, we carry both of you with us. You have given freely to all. We have witnessed the story of your biography: the true story of a diplomat’s unlikely journey from the bottom to the top. Immeasurably blessed and enriched we are. n Scott Kennedy Regional Medical Officer, retired Culpeper, Virginia Share your thoughts about this month’s issue. Submit letters to the editor: journal@afsa.org