Wednesday, September 12, 2012

I don't know what to say

but I am trying to sort it out. I didn't personally know any of the 4 people killed in Bengazi today/yesterday (time zones) and I keep hearing how amazing Ambassador Christopher Stevens was. I am sure he was. The only other name so far released strikes a much stronger chord in me though. Sean Smith was on TDY in Bengazi. TDY means he was there temporarily, it often happens when a post is short on people and folks serving at other posts are asked to come for a short while to keep things moving along. You see, Sean was an IMO. That's what Terry does. To bring it even closer to home, the other guy in the 2-man section Terry runs was supposed to go TDY to Bengazi next month. If the murderers hadn't decided to commemorate 9/11 I might not be able to say I didn't know any of the dead personally. Even writing this I start to choke up. We all say the foreign service isn't all fat cat fancypants. We all say we endure real hardships and suffer real danger. I just hate that we had to go and prove it so viscerally.

My most sincere condolences to the families of the deceased, and to all the people of Libya, who I hear lost a real champion in Ambassador Stevens.

No comments: