Thursday, June 10, 2021

Remembering Fallen FSO Colleagues

 On Memorial Day I posted a blog remembering the men who were killed in Army artillery battery during the Vietnam War. I thought I should also remember the Foreign Service Officers I Knew who died in the line of duty, although not while I was serving with them. Their names of listed on the State Department Memorial Plaque.

John Patterson was in my A-100 class in Washington for beginning Foreign Service Officers. His first assignment was Mexico. He was killed while he was serving there. The AFSA (American Foreign Service Association) note says:

John S. Patterson served as U.S. vice consul in Hermosillo, Mexico. He was kidnapped by terrorists on March 22, 1974 and later found dead.

Tom Doubleday served with me in Bangkok, Thailand. He died while serving in the American Embassy in Monrovia, Libera. The AFSA note about him says:

Thomas P. Doubleday, Jr., was born in New York City in 1942. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

Doubleday joined the Foreign Service in 1965. He served in Bangkok, Saigon, Luanda, Lagos, the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, the Bureau of International Organizational Affairs, the Bureau of African Affairs, the Bureau of Personnel and the Bureau of Refugee Programs.

Doubleday’s final post was as a political counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia, Liberia. He died of a heart attack on February 8, 1993. During his lifetime, he received the Meritorious Honor Award.

No comments: