Secretary Antony Blinken Honors Diplomatic Security Fallen in Memorial Ceremony – United States Department of State

Speaking at a May 9 special ceremony honoring 16 fallen heroes whose names were recently engraved on the Diplomatic Security (DS) Memorial Wall, Secretary of State Antony Blinken paid tribute to those security personnel who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect the people, the facilities, and the information that make U.S. diplomacy possible.

“A Marine Corporal who just proposed to his fiancée over Thanksgiving. A Tunisian police officer remembered simply as a ‘kind and compassionate’ person,” said Secretary Blinken in recognizing several of the fallen. “A local guard in Jeddah who left behind three sons, including one who now stands watch at a U.S. diplomatic facility in Saudi Arabia, just as his father did.”

Secretary Blinken also poignantly noted that on any given day, other than his family, the first person he is likely to see in the morning and the last person in the evening is a member of Diplomatic Security, “the team that I’ve had the immense privilege to work with over these past three and a half years [and] are like family to us.”

Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security Gentry Smith, who hosted the ceremony, provided opening remarks. “It’s a special day to recognize our own fallen as represented on the DS Memorial,” said Assistant Secretary Smith. “While local and federal law enforcement officers face danger enforcing the laws of U.S. cities and towns, we in diplomatic security face a different kind of threat as we advance our mission to provide a safe and secure environment in which to conduct foreign policy.”

Assistant Secretary Smith also acknowledged members of the U.S. military who have died in service to diplomatic security, noting that “today, we honor Marine Security Guard Corporal Elwyn Ramirez, and we also honor 12 other MSGs and five other military officers who died defending our embassies over the years—all the way back to the Vietnam War.”

The Assistant Secretary highlighted the important role that our embassies and the surrounding communities play in honoring those who died in their service. One of the 16 honored, Major Toufik Missaoui, with the Tunisian Public Order Brigade, was killed by a suicide bomber as he protected the U.S. Embassy in Tunis. Embassy employees, local citizens, and others raised funds to help the family, renamed the street in front of the embassy for the fallen officer, and broke ground for a monument honoring him.

The Secretary also paid special tribute to host nation personnel who support U.S. embassies overseas.

“Fifteen of these 16 men were local personnel supporting our missions in Afghanistan and Djibouti, Jamaica, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia,” said Secretary Blinken. “It shows the extraordinary partnership we have in our embassies around the world with our local staff, our local teams as I travel around the world getting a chance to meet with our embassies, our personnel, the locally engaged staff, and notably those who are working to provide security. They are the lifeblood of our missions. We could not do our diplomacy without them.”

The Secretary also praised the training that DS conducts at its Foreign Affairs Security Training Center (FASTC), noting that this training could mean the difference between someone returning safely home or another name being added to a memorial.

“We know we can never reduce that risk down to zero, but what we can do is to manage these challenges smartly and responsibly. And that’s exactly what Diplomatic Security personnel are doing in over 170 countries around the world,” said Secretary Blinken as the ceremony ended.

More than 80 senior State Department officials, DS personnel, and representatives from the countries of the 16 fallen attended the gathering, which took place at Diplomatic Security Service headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.

For more information about the fallen, visit the DS Memorial website.