26 NOVEMBER 2023 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL The collection is edited by three former USAID employees: Gary Alex was a Foreign Service officer from 1977 to 1996, serving in Bolivia, Nepal, Burma, Sri Lanka, and Washington, D.C. Originally from Iowa, Mike Chilton worked as a USAID contractor in Thailand and Vietnam from 1966 to 1975. Frederic Benson was a USAID contractor in Laos from 1970 to 1974. Knights of Freedom: With the Hell on Wheels Armored Division in World War II, A Story in Photos Fred C. Brems, with Fred G. Brems, Stackpole Books, forthcoming, $29.95/paperback, 320 pages. In 1941, six months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the author’s father—also named Fred Brems— was drafted into the U.S. Army and served as a tanker with the 2nd Armored Division, eventually rising to command a platoon and then a company of Sherman tanks. Along the way, he took more than 600 photos, and when he returned home after the war, he shared the stories behind the photos with his son. The younger Fred Brems became a student of military history who never forgot his father’s stories or photos. He embarked on a project to digitally scan and enlarge the photos, and eventually decided to compile the digitized photos, as well as his dad’s stories, into a book. Students of World War II military history and fans of old photography will find a new and personal look at the era within the book’s pages. Fred G. Brems is the spouse of retired USAID FSO Susan Brems. He and his spouse served in Lima, La Paz, Managua, and Manila. He has an M.A. from the University of Maryland and a B.S. from Georgetown University. Missing in Mexico: A True Mystery Robert Richard Downes, independently published, 2022, $14.95/paperback, e-book available, 279 pages. In 1982 Robert Richard Downes was a first-tour consular officer serving in Mazatlán, Mexico, when a U.S. citizen, Professor Nicholas Schrock, was reported missing in Downes’ consular district. For the rest of his tour, Downes helped lead the search for Schrock. The search continued for years after Downes had moved to a new post, but Schrock was never found. After he retired, Downes decided to write the story of the search for the professor. Missing in Mexico draws on his personal recollections as well as cables, letters, and newspaper articles from the time to show the behind-the-scenes work that went into the search. Downes writes that he wanted “to show a broader audience a series of events from the viewpoint of Foreign Service officers serving abroad and trying to protect American citizens.” It also gives a view of life at a consulate in the days before emails, cell phones, and desktop computers. Robert Richard Downes is a retired Senior Foreign Service officer with the State Department. During a 37-year diplomatic career, he served overseas in Mazatlán, Stuttgart, Bangkok, Bonn, Berlin, Canberra, Caracas, and Managua. He currently lives in Texas. The Extraordinary Leadership of Eleanor Roosevelt: Why It Matters Today Emilio Iodice, independently published, 2023, $15.00/paperback, e-book available, 220 pages. Former Foreign Service Officer Emilio Iodice is back with his newest book, this one on the life and leadership of Eleanor Roosevelt. In his opening disclaimer, Iodice notes that “parts of this work are fiction,” with various names, places, and events imagined by the author. He adds, though, that it reads more like a biography, with quoted material from those close to Roosevelt taken from the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library. Iodice was moved to write the book, he explains in an author’s note, because he believes that Roosevelt’s leadership and ideals were inspirational, and “a new generation needs Eleanor Roosevelt as a guide to know what to do in a time of conflict, contradictions, and anguish.” Emilio Iodice served in Brazil, Mexico, Spain, and Italy before retiring from the Foreign Service in 1998. He subsequently served as vice president of Lucent Technologies and director and professor of leadership of the John Felice Rome Center of Loyola University until 2016. He serves on the board of Marymount International and is a professor of leadership at LUISS University in Rome and director emeritus of Loyola University Chicago’s campus in Rome.
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