On the First Line of Defense: The Foreign Service
One of the first things they tell you in training to be a U.S. Foreign Service officer is that our embassies and consulates are the first line of defense for the country. This was proven tragically yesterday in Libya where Ambassador Chris Stevens and three U.S. diplomatic personnel were killed by extremists. They were indeed manning the front lines in the service of their country.
I worked for the last U.S. ambassador to have died in the line of duty, Arnold L. Raphel, who was killed in a plane crash, along with the President of Pakistan, in 1988. I still have an emotional reaction when I recall his moving burial ceremony at Arlington cemetery. He was 45 years old.
At my last posting, Hanoi, Vietnam, nine military colleagues were killed in a helicopter crash. I stood at attention then too as their coffins were loaded onto aircraft for repatriation to the U.S. and their loved ones. Most Foreign Service employees probably knew, or know of, colleagues who had either died or were injured in the line of duty.
In the main lobby of the State Department are several marble plaques engraved with the names of 236 men and women who gave their lives representing the United States as diplomats. Eight of them were ambassadors. Now with the fatalities in Libya, we count 96 diplomats killed in the line of duty since 1981. The U.S. Foreign Service has some 8,000 employees. Like most of my colleagues, whenever I passed by those plaques on my way to the office, I reminded myself that my name could easily have joined the death roster while serving in dangerous places. There but for the grace of God. . .
I've written previously about a popular misperception among Americans about the nature of the work of U.S. diplomats. In Running Amok: Mental Health in the U.S. Foreign Service, I noted that "the number of Foreign Service personnel medevacced for mental health reasons has doubled. One study revealed 15 percent of FS members suffered from PTSD. A similar study done by the Defense Dept. found that 17 percent of soldiers returned from Iraq and Afghanistan suffered from the same condition. As the U.S. has gotten involved in more overseas conflicts, the pressures on our diplomats have compounded."
Fueling the popular misperception of diplomats as effete cookie pushers are ignorant and malicious statements by some of our political leaders aimed at the Foreign Service. The non-career politically appointed ex-ambassador to France, Evan Galbraith, stated, "the Foreign Service takes the guts out of people." More recently, former presidential primary candidate, Rick Perry, spat, "I’m not sure our State Department serves us well" and went on to excoriate career Foreign Service officers.
It is unfortunate that it takes tragic events like having an overseas mission stormed and U.S. envoys killed to bring to the public's attention that the work of their diplomats is anything but gutless or not serving the country well. The sacrifices of Ambassador Chris Stevens and his colleagues prove that all too well.