USIA Memorial Plaque

Kasmuri bin Rosian was a USIS Foreign Service National employee in Singapore. A chauffeur, after driving a new government vehicle to the U.S. Consulate in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysa, the train returning him to Singapore was attacked by Communist pro-independence fighters and he was killed.

Note: One source gives his name only as “Ahmad.”

[Sources: The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, Foreign Affairs Oral History Project, Interview with FSO (retired) James J. Halsema at adst.org, Page 21; “USIA Unveils Plaque Honoring Employees Killed in Line of Duty,” USIA World, Vol. 9, #4, August 1990, Page 20]

Jack Curtis Andrew was born in California on October 22, 1922. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1949. He joined USIA as a Foreign Service officer in September 1950 serving in Frankfurt and Munich. He was assigned as an information officer in Saigon in October 1953 and became a motion picture officer there in December 1954. In June 1955 he was medevaced to the U.S. Air Force Hospital at Clark Field in the Philippines where he died on June 18 of hepatitis. He was survived by his wife. He was 32 years old. He is buried in San Gorgonio Memorial Park in Banning California.

[Sources: Department of State Biographic Register, May 1955; “Jack Curtis Andrew,” www.findagrave.com, Memorial ID 25199468, “New Names added to Memorial Plaque,” USIA World, Fall 1991, Page 13]

Francis Patrick Corrigan, Jr., was born in Larkspur, California, on April 4, 1925. He served in the U.S. Merchant Marine during World War II. As a U.S. Navy Reserve officer, he was called to active duty during the Korean War, serving first on destroyers and then as an air naval gunfire liaison officer with Marine ground units, earning a Bronze Star with Combat “V” for acts of valor during combat. After the war, he completed his degree at the University of Hawaii.

He joined USIA in August 1956 as a Foreign Service officer, serving first at the U.S. mission in Taiwan. He then served as a Branch Public Affairs Officer in Luang Prabang, Laos, from 1957 until his death in 1961. On March 31, 1961, in Hong Sa, southwest of Luang Prabang, Laos, Corrigan was passenger on a small plane making one of his regular tours of the districts in Northern Laos which fell within his area of responsibility. That day’s mission included dropping leaflets to undermine public support for the Pathet Lao (communist forces). The plane crashed into a tree on take-off, killing Corrigan and injuring two Lao passengers. He was 35 years old.

At a later memorial ceremony attended by over 1,000 Laotians, Buddhist monks said prayers over his coffin and the provincial governor laid a wreath saying, “From his Laotian friends, their eternal regrets.” In 1961, USIA Director Edward R. Murrow presented a posthumous Distinguished Service Award to his widow Flora Maye Corrigan. He was also survived by son Raymond Corrigan and adopted Laotian daughter Katy Corrigan. He is buried in Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery in San Rafael, California.

[Sources: Time Magazine, April 14, 1961, Page 32 (includes photo of Mr. Corrigan); Department of State Biographic Register, May 1960; “Laughter in the Shadows: A CIA Memoir,” Stuart E. Methven, Naval Institute Press, 2014, Pages 82-83; USIA Distinguished Service Award (Posthumous) nomination, April 1, 1961, (Corrigan family records provided to AFSA)]

William Howison Lewis was born on March 30, 1917, in Washington, D.C. He graduated from Howard University in 1938 and earned a master’s degree there in 1943. During World War II, he served on the National War Labor Board and later was a Department of State civil service employee. He joined USIA as a Foreign Service officer in 1954 serving in New Delhi, Lucknow (northern India), and Washington, D.C. His final assignment was in Accra, Ghana, were he died of cerebral malaria on September 21, 1963. He was 46 years old.

[Sources: “Official of Ghana is Buried,” New Pittsburgh Courier, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October 5, 1963, Page 3, online at Newspapers.com; Department of State Biographic Register 1964; “New Names added to Memorial Plaque,” USIA World, Fall 1991, Page 13]

Takeo Sato was a Foreign Service National employee of USIS at U.S. Embassy Tokyo. He was killed in an automobile accident on May 14, 1965. He died while aiding other crash victims. Additional details were not found an Internet search in 2026.

[Source: “New Names added to Memorial Plaque,” USIA World, Fall 1991, Vol. 10, #8, Page 13]

Helen E. Kallio was born on August 12, 1942, in Cecil County, Maryland. She joined USIA as a secretary in 1964. Fifteen months into her first assignment in Mogadishu, Somalia, she was killed in a traffic accident there on September 8, 1966. Additional details were not found an Internet search in 2026. She was 24 years old. She was survived by her parents and a sister. She is buried in North East United Methodist Cemetery in North East, Maryland.

Note: The name on the USIA memorial plaque is Helen Kelly. Helen G. Kelly, born in 1904, was a Department of State civil service employee from the 1930s to 1960s, but documentary evidence indicates that the USIA employee who died in Somalia in 1966 was Helen E. Kallio.

[Source: “Helen E. Kallio” www.findagrave.com, Memorial ID 88449025]

Leonardo C. de Azevedo, a USIS Foreign Service National employee, died in a vehicle accident while on a trip showing films in interior Brazil. Additional details were not found an Internet search in 2026.

[Source: “USIA Unveils Plaque Honoring Employees Killed in Line of Duty,” USIA World, Vol. 9, #4, August 1990, Page 20]

John Roger McLean was born in Tucson, Arizona, on September 25, 1934, and raised in Detroit, Michigan. He spoke fluent Lao and served as a public affairs officer with USIS in Laos. He died in the crash of a chartered airplane on April 6, 1967, along with four other Americans. He was 32 years old. McLean was survived by a sister, three nieces, a nephew, and his uncle, who worked for USIA. McLean is buried at Holy Sepulcher Catholic Cemetery in Southfield, Michigan.

Note: The plaque lists his name as MacLean, but other documentation lists it as McLean.

[Sources: “Brutal Laotian War Continued Unabated,” The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Washington, February 19, 1967, Page 53, online at Newspapers.com; “2 From Texas Among Victims in Laos Crash,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas, May 6, 1967, Page 2, online at Newspapers.com; “John Roger McLean,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID: 139983874; Ancestry.com records]

Stephen Harwood Miller was born in State College, Pennsylvania, on March 14, 1939. His family moved with some regularity in his childhood, as his father was a history professor who taught at private universities in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Washington, D.C. He graduated from Haverford College in 1962 and joined the State Department Foreign Service serving in Frankfurt and Windsor.

Miller was detailed to USIS in Vietnam at the Joint U.S. Public Affairs Office. On February 7, 1968, he was bound and shot by the Viet Cong in a field behind a Catholic seminary in Hue during the Tet Offensive. Miller was survived by his wife and three children, as well as his parents and two siblings. He is buried in Concord Friends Cemetery, Concordville, Pennsylvania.

[Sources: “State Department Reports Deaths of Three U.S. Civilian Employees,” The Tribune, Scranton, Pennsylvania, February 20, 1968, Page 10, online at Newspapers.com; “Body of Ohio Man is Found in Hue Cemetery,” Gazette News-Current, Xenia, Ohio, February 19, 1968, Page 1, online at Newspapers.com; Lau, Raymond R., “The 1968 Tet Offensive in Vietnam and the Seizure of Hue,” Studies in Intelligence (Vol. 61, No. 4; Extracts, December 2017); Newsday (Suffolk Edition), Melville, New York, February 10, 1968, Page 11, online at Newspapers.com; “Work of Artist Killed in Vietnam on Exhibit,” Newsday (Suffolk Edition), Melville, New York, November 19, 1968, Page 77, online at Newspapers.com; Ancestry.com records; U.S. Department of State Biographic Register, July 1967; “Stephen Harwood Miller” at www.findagrave.com, Memorial ID 112684835]

Wimon Siddhipraneet was one of three Foreign Service National employees of the USIS branch post in Chiang Mai, Thailand, who were shot to death on June 19, 1970, in a Communist insurgent ambush in Nan Province near the Thai-Laotian border. The three men were traveling in a U.S. Government jeep returning from a USIS mobile information team trip to counter insurgent propaganda.

[Sources: “3 Dead in North Thailand Ambush,” Grand Forks Hearld, Grand Forks North Dakota, June 22, 1070, Page 14, online at www.newspapers.com; FSO (retired) Richard A. Virden email to AFSA, June 25, 2026; The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, Foreign Affairs Oral History Project, Interview with Richard A. Virden online at adst.org, Page 30; “USIA Unveils Plaque Honoring Employees Killed in Line of Duty,” USIA World, Vol. 9, #4, August 1990, Page 20]

Mana Smithapindhu was one of three Foreign Service National employees of the USIS branch post in Chiang Mai, Thailand, who were shot to death on June 19, 1970, in a Communist insurgent ambush in Nan Province near the Thai-Laotian border. The three men were traveling in a U.S. Government jeep returning from a USIS mobile information team trip to counter insurgent propaganda.

[Sources: “3 Dead in North Thailand Ambush,” Grand Forks Hearld, Grand Forks North Dakota, June 22, 1070, Page 14, online at www.newspapers.com; FSO (retired) Richard A. Virden email to AFSA, June 25, 2026; The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, Foreign Affairs Oral History Project, Interview with Richard A. Virden online at adst.org, Page 30; “USIA Unveils Plaque Honoring Employees Killed in Line of Duty,” USIA World, Vol. 9, #4, August 1990, Page 20]

Prasert Wasutalhakarn was one of three Foreign Service National employees of the USIS branch post in Chiang Mai, Thailand, who were shot to death on June 19, 1970, in a Communist insurgent ambush in Nan Province near the Thai-Laotian border. The three men were traveling in a U.S. Government jeep returning from a USIS mobile information team trip to counter insurgent propaganda.

[Sources: “3 Dead in North Thailand Ambush,” Grand Forks Hearld, Grand Forks North Dakota, June 22, 1070, Page 14, online at www.newspapers.com; FSO (retired) Richard A. Virden email to AFSA, June 25, 2026; The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, Foreign Affairs Oral History Project, Interview with Richard A. Virden online at adst.org, Page 30; “USIA Unveils Plaque Honoring Employees Killed in Line of Duty,” USIA World, Vol. 9, #4, August 1990, Page 20]

Charles Devereux Searles was born in Michigan on November 10, 1924. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, he received degrees from Princeton and Harvard. He joined the Department of State in 1950 and transferred to USIA in 1956. He served in Austria, Laos, Madagascar, Togo, and Uganda. While serving as USIS head in Uganda, he died in a vehicle crash in next door Kenya on May 28, 1970, while driving to attend the wedding of a former Peace Corps volunteer. He was 45 years old. He was survived by his wife Nancy Searles and two sons.

[Sources: Foreign Service Journal, July 1970, Page 26; Department of State Biographic Register 1969; AFSA telephone interview of Nancy Searles, September 2025]

Benoit Iyonnga, a USIS Foreign Service National employee, died in a vehicle accident while on a trip showing films in interior Cameroon. Additional details were not found an Internet search in 2026.

[Sources: “USIA Unveils Plaque Honoring Employees Killed in Line of Duty,” USIA World, Vol. 9, #4, August 1990, Page 20; photo curtesy of FSO (retired) Phillip Brown]

Wayne Ayres Wilcox was born on July 13, 1932, in Pendleton, Indiana. He grew up in North Liberty, Indiana, graduating from Perdue University in 1954. After serving two years in the U.S. Naval Reserve, he got a Ph.D. from Columbia University where he chaired the political science department. He authored four books and also served as research analyst at Rand Corporation and a consultant in the State Department.

He joined USIA in 1971. Serving as cultural attaché at U.S. Embassy London, he was returning to post on March 3, 1974, after attending a conference in Pakistan. His Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to London made an intermediate stop at Orly Airport in Paris. The flight crashed shortly after takeoff killing all 355 passengers and crew. The dead included his wife, Ouida, and children Kailan and Clark who were returning home to London. He was 41 years old. He was survived by children Shelley and Spencer who had remained in London. He is buried in Thiais Parisian Cemetery. The crash remains one of the 10 most deadly in aviation history. His colleagues founded an AFSA Scholarship in his family’s honor.

Note: The plaque lists his post of assignment in England, but he died in France.

[Sources: “North Liberty Man, Wife, 2 Children Die in Crash,” Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, Indiana, March 5, 1974, Page 3, online at Newspapers.com; Foreign Service Journal, April 1974, Page 36; Foreign Service Journal, May 1974; Pages 24-25; Wayne Ayres Wilcox, Findagrave.com, Memorial ID 196224559]

Everly Harriet Driscoll was born in Harris County, Texas on October 27, 1940. She graduated from Baylor University in 1962 and worked in the private sector and then for NASA before joining USIA in 1973 as science reporter for the USIA Wireless File. Based in Washington, D.C., she was on temporary duty in Nairobi, Kenya, on August 14, 1981, covering a United Nations conference when she was shot to death in a robbery attempt while riding in a car. She was 40 years old. She was survived by her parents and two brothers. She is buried in Cook-Walden Memorial Hill Cemetery in Austin, Texas.

[Sources: “Houston-born journalist killed after car chase,” Houston Post, Houston, Texas, August 15, 1981, Page 15, online at Newspapers.com; The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, Foreign Affairs Oral History Project, Interview with Hugh Muir online at adst.org, Page 18; Department of State Biographic Register, July 1974; “Everly Harriet Driscoll” on www.findagrave.com, Memorial ID 53718887]

Riyad G. Abdul-Massin was a Foreign Service National employee of USIS in Lebanon. On April 18, 1983, he was one of 63 people (17 Americans, 32 Lebanese, and 14 visitors and passers-by) killed at U.S. Embassy Beirut when a van carrying a 2,000-pound bomb broke through an outbuilding, crashed through the lobby door, and exploded there. The Islamic Jihad Organization, which later became part of Hizballah, claimed responsibility.

[Source: https://www.beirut-memorial.org/history/lebanese.html]

Hassan M. Assaran was a Foreign Service National employee of USIS in Lebanon. On April 18, 1983, he was one of 63 people (17 Americans, 32 Lebanese, and 14 visitors and passers-by) killed at U.S. Embassy Beirut when a van carrying a 2,000-pound bomb broke through an outbuilding, crashed through the lobby door, and exploded there. The Islamic Jihad Organization, which later became part of Hizballah, claimed responsibility.

[Source: https://www.beirut-memorial.org/history/lebanese.html]

Edgard J. Khuri was a Foreign Service National employee of USIS in Lebanon. On April 18, 1983, he was one of 63 people (17 Americans, 32 Lebanese, and 14 visitors and passers-by) killed at U.S. Embassy Beirut when a van carrying a 2,000-pound bomb broke through an outbuilding, crashed through the lobby door, and exploded there. The Islamic Jihad Organization, which later became part of Hizballah, claimed responsibility.

Note: One source transliterates his name as “Edgard Khouri.”

[Source: https://www.beirut-memorial.org/history/lebanese.html]

Virginia Louise Warfield was born on October 17, 1932. Growing up in Woodbine, Maryland, she graduated from the University of Maryland and taught at the Ellicott City Junior High School. She also had a master’s degree from Stanford University and did graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley. Joining USIA in 1965 as a cultural affairs officer, her assignments included Yaoundé, Douala, Antananarivo, and Addis Ababa.

On June 30, 1983, serving in Bombay (now Mumbai), India, she was severely injured in a car accident near Agra, India, while returning to New Delhi after supporting Secretary of State George Shultz’s visit to the Taj Mahal. Warfield succumbed to her injuries on July 19 after being medevaced to Clark Air Force Base Hospital in the Philippines for treatment. Security engineer Charles Soper and USIS photographer Rabinder Nath Khanna died in the accident. Warfield was 50 years old. She was survived by six siblings. She is buried in Jennings Chapel Cemetery in Florence, Maryland.

[Sources: The Evening Sun, Baltimore, Maryland, July 19, 1983, Page 29, online at Newspapers.com; “Virginia Louise Warfield,” Findagrave.com, Memorial ID: 28401308; State Department Biographic Register, July 1974; Ancestry.com records]

Rabinder Nath Khanna was a USIS photographer. On June 30, 1983, he and other U.S. Embassy New Delhi officials were returning from Agra, India, where they had supported the visit of Secretary of State George Shultz to the Taj Mahal. Their vehicle collided head-on with a truck about 30 miles outside of Agra, killing Khanna and embassy security engineer Charles Soper. Injured in the same accident was USIA cultural affairs officer Virginia Warfield, who died of her injuries a few weeks later.

[Sources: “Accident Victims Identified,” The Naples Daily News, Naples, Florida, July 1, 1983, Page 10, online at Newspapers.com; “New Names added to Memorial Plaque,” USIA World, Fall 1991, Vol. 10, #8, Page 13]

Barbara Joan Allen was born in Wisconsin on August 21, 1944. Graduating from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, 1964, she earned a master’s degree at Duke University in 1969. After working in the private sector, she joined USIA in 1970 serving in Rome, Dar es Salaam, Moscow. Leningrad, and Mombasa. She came down with malaria while serving as Principal Officer in Mombasa, Kenya. For religious reasons, she had not taken anti-malaria tablets and declined treatment with quinine after becoming ill. Medevaced to Nairobi and then to the United States, she died of malaria on June 1, 1986, in St. Louis, Missouri. She was 41 years old. She was survived by her father and three sisters. She is buried in Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Note: The plaque lists her post of assignment in Kenya, but she died in the United States.

[Sources: “Obituaries,” USIA World, September 1986, Vol. 5, #5, Page 39; Department of State Biographic Register 1974; “In Check for Years: Malaria: An Old Enemy Rises Again,” by Scott Kraft, Los Angeles Times, November 22, 1986, at https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-11-22-mn-15246-story.html; “Barbara Joan Allen,” at www.findagrave.com, Memorial ID 105054960; death announcement, Winston-Salem Journal, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, June 4, 1986, Page 7, online at Newspapers.com]

Mathew Mwikoni, a USIS Foreign Service National motor vehicle driver and mechanic, died in a motorcycle accident in Dar Es Salaam in November 1987 while delivering the Wireless File (compilation of foreign policy documents and analyses sent by USIA Washington). He was survived by his wife and 11 children.

Note: The plaque lists the year of death as 1988, but other documentation says it was 1987.

[Source: “Obituaries,” USIA World, Vol. 7, #4, April 1988, Pages 22 and 23]

Dallas Hugh Cox was born on March 22, 1931, in Speed, North Carolina. He joined the Voice of America in 1968 after service in the U.S. Air Force. In 1990, he was a supervisor at VOA radio transmitter site B in Black Jack (Greenville), North Carolina. He died in an electrocution accident on November 15, 1990. He was 59 years old. He was survived by his wife, two daughters, and other family members. He is buried in Greenleaf Memorial Park in Trent Woods, North Carolina.

[Sources: “Obituaries,” USIA World, February 1991, Vol. 10, #1, Page 11; “Dallas Hugh Cox” in www.findagrave.com, Memorial ID 128001756; “Dallas Hugh Cox” in The Sun Journal, New Bern North Carolina, November 16, 1990, Page 4, online at Newspapers.com; “New Bern man electrocuted at Greenville radio facility” in The Sun Journal, New Bern North Carolins, November 18, 1990, Page 3, online at Newspapers.com; “New Names added to Memorial Plaque,” USIA World, Fall 1991, Page 13]

Rachel Mugasia Pussy began working as a Foreign Service National employee of USIS in Kenya in 1978. On August 7, 1998, she was killed in the terrorist truck bombing attack on U.S. Embassy Nairobi. The bombing was simultaneous with a suicide bomb attack on U.S. Embassy Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The twin attacks killed 224 people -- including 12 Americans and 32 Foreign Service Nationals in Nairobi and 10 FSNs in Dar es Salaam -- and wounded over 4,000. The attacks were conducted by the al-Qaeda network and ordered by Osama bin Laden. She was survived by a husband and children.

Memorials to the bombing victims are located in Arlington National Cemetery (Section 51), the Harry S Truman Building (South Courtyard outside of C Street Lobby which includes names of American and FSN employees), the site of the former U.S. embassy in Nairobi, the National Museum of Tanzania, and the current U.S. Embassy Dar es Salaam.

Note: One source lists her name as “Rachel Pussy Mugasia.”

[Sources: https://1997-2001.state.gov/publications/statemag/statemag_oct98/featxt1e.html; https://irp.fas.org/threat/arb/board_victims.html; https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=241782; https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Mugasia-1; FSO (retired) Domenick DiPasquale email to AFSA, June 30, 2026]