Protecting Our Nation's Interests Abroad

[Anthony Ridgeway is the recipient of the Director's Choice Award. The Director's Choice Award is presented to the security engineer in the top percentile for academics and performance. Mr. Ridgeway was awarded this honor based upon his ratings by DS training staff and for his performance during temprary duty in Jerusalem.]

On behalf of Security Engineering Officer Class 03-04, I would like to extend everyone a warm welcome and thank you for joining us on this very special occasion.

Today marks the close of a comprehensive, professional training program and the beginning of an exciting and rewarding career serving the American people as security engineering officers. In becoming security engineering officers, we have taken on the necessary task of protecting our national interests abroad by helping to secure our embassies and to lend our technical expertise to fulfill Diplomatic Security’s mission of protecting our people, our facilities, and our information.

It has been my distinct pleasure to work with a highly talented and diverse group of SEO trainees over the past 8 months. Our backgrounds are as varied as our personalities and range from physics and computer science to electrical, telecommunications, and mechanical engineering. I can honestly say that I have learned from each and every one of my classmates and have truly enjoyed our time together; in this I am sure that I am not alone. Over the course of our training, lasting friendships have been formed that will last throughout our careers.

Although this class of 12 security engineering officers is very talented and extensively trained in our respective fields, we would not be able to perform our duties without the specialized training provided by Diplomatic Security’s Security Engineering and Computer Training Division. Our training program included not only specialized technical training but also important topics such as risk management and surveillance detection. Within our training we also worked on special projects including CAT5 data cable and wireless network vulnerabilities, with the end result being demonstrations suitable for use in future training. Highlights of our SEO training include an outstanding lock course, an Anti-Terrorism Driving course, and a 3-week overseas temporary duty assignment where we learned what it is like to work as an SEO at a variety of posts around the world and to deal with passports, long flights, and Washington winter weather. At this time I would like to make a presentation to the Security Engineering and Computer Training Division on behalf of SEO class 03-04. It reads, “To Security Engineering and Computer Training Division - In grateful appreciation for delivering an outstanding Security Engineering Officer training program to the SEO 03-04 class.”

I would like to thank all of the SECD staff, in particular Tony Jones for coordinating our training schedule, Lane Bearden and Nipa Tenley, who made sure that we were where we needed to be when we needed to be there and helped keep all of our affairs in order, and Zach Lutz for supervising our special projects. I would also like to thank Chris Howe for acting as SEO 03-04 class leader and serving as a liaison between the class and the SECD staff. Thanks are also due to all of our family and friends for their continued support.