10 DECEMBER 2024 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL LETTERS Cherishing a Marine’s Legacy I reached out to The Foreign Service Journal to see if I could obtain a copy of an article published in the September 2011 edition, “Witness to Tragedy: A Reflection on the 10th Anniversary of 9/11,” by Donna Ayerst. This article was written about my uncle, U.S. Marine Jonathan D. Gross, who died in an accident while assigned to the U.S. embassy in Mozambique in 2001. I found it while talking about my uncle to my 7-year-old son, and I thought having a physical copy of the article in my family’s possession would help cherish my uncle’s legacy. I have a difficult time putting into words just how significant finding this article was for me. I remember getting the news of my uncle’s accident 23 years ago. I was a 16-year-old kid, listening to Jay-Z’s “The Blueprint” album, walking home from school and into my grandmother’s apartment, which was filled with military personnel. My grandmother, my mom, my younger sister, and my aunt were all in tears as they told me, “There was an accident.” My entire life changed from there on. Reading that September 2011 FSJ article was a lot for me to process. My uncle was my hero, the person who taught me the life lessons I’m now teaching my son, Elijah. My wife and son have never seen me shed as many tears as I did while reading the article about my uncle. This edition of the Journal sent me on a path to find out whether there was more about my uncle online. A 2017 Washington Post comment on his obituary led me to a social media conversation with a friend my uncle had made while stationed in Mozambique. I took time away from work to recharge and really process some of the family trauma I buried from the fallout of his death. I started grief counseling and made my first visit in 10 years to his gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery. Receiving the September 2011 edition of the FSJ helped me speak life into my uncle’s legacy, to celebrate the U.S. Marine he was and the connections he built while in service. I now have a physical copy of the magazine as a memorial to one day pass along to my son. By honoring my uncle’s values, holding on to his memory, I know his legacy can live through me and beyond. Thank you for all the work you put into The Foreign Service Journal. The impact of your work is greatly appreciated. My words can’t truly express the effect this story had on me—this was my first time ever sharing this in writing. Christian Gross Bowie, Maryland Don’t Forget New Caledonia I read the October 2024 FSJ feature story, “Making our Rhetoric Real: U.S. Diplomacy in the Pacific Islands” by John Hennessey-Niland, with interest, hoping that it would make at least brief mention of the strategic island of New Caledonia and possible Chinese interest in its future. An overseas French territory since 1853, New Caledonia holds 25 percent of the world’s deposits of nickel, as well as significant quantities of chromium, cobalt, iron, and magnesium. Since 1947, it has hosted the headquarters of the South Pacific Commission and its successor, the Pacific Community. New Caledonia has suffered several periods of violent strife between French settlers and the indigenous Kanak population, most recently beginning in May 2024. China may be fishing in these troubled waters to expand its influence, especially since we maintain no presence other than occasional consular visits from our embassy in Fiji, more than 800 miles away. We were not always absent. In anticipation of the outbreak of war with Japan, we opened a consulate in Nouméa in early 1941. From 1942 to 1945, New Caledonia was an important staging area in support of the Allies’ conduct of the war, and upward of 50,000 American soldiers were present on the island at any given time. By some accounts, James Michener began writing his celebrated Tales of the South Pacific while there. My father, Claude G. Ross, served as U.S. consul in Nouméa from 1949 to 1951, and it was there as a first and second grader in a French school that I learned the French that served me so well in my own career with the Department of State and the United Nations. We closed the consulate in 1957, reportedly as part of a costcutting exercise. I am convinced that our interests require an on-site presence as we work to protect the world’s access to New Caledonian resources and counter Chinese influence. Twice, I have written to the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs and the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs
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