Fallen Colleagues from USAID Honored at State Department
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 16, 2007
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WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Under Secretary of State R. Nicholas Burns gave remarks today during the American Foreign Service Association Memorial Plaque ceremony at the U.S. State Department. The event, as part of the annual Foreign Affairs Day celebration, honors those colleagues from the American Foreign Service who have lost their lives while serving their country in the line of duty or under heroic or other inspirational circumstances.
The Under Secretary read a message from President Bush, paying respect to the families of three employees whose names will be added to the plaque, bringing the total to 225 names. One such name was that of Margaret Alexander, deputy director with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Nepal.
Margaret was killed on September 23, 2006 in a helicopter crash near Ghunsa in the Himalayan Mountains. There were twenty-four others on board including representatives from the World Wildlife Federation, the Nepalese Minister of Forests and Soil Conservation and his wife, the Charge d´Affairs of the Embassy of Finland and USAID Foreign Service national employee, Dr. Bijnan Acharya. On November 7, 2006, the names of both Margaret and Dr. Acharya were added to the USAID Memorial Wall.
Others honored were:
Henry W. Antheil, Jr., a clerk at the U.S. Legation in Helsinki, killed on June 14, 1940 while serving as a diplomatic courier when the Finnish passenger plane Kaleva was shot down over the Gulf of Finland near Tallinn, Estonia.
Doris G. Knittler, a Foreign Service nurse in Kabul, Afghanistan, found murdered in her home in August 1970.
The U.S. Agency for International Development has provided economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide for more than 40 years.
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