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WASHINGTON, Aug. 25, 1997 – U.S. and Bosnian officials commemorated the sacrifice of three American peace envoys Aug. 19, unveiling a marker at the site in Bosnia where the men died two years ago.
U.S. Ambassador Robert C. Frasure; Joseph J. Kruzel, deputy assistant secretary of defense for European and NATO policy; and Air Force Col. Samuel N. Drew were killed Aug. 19, 1995, when a rain-soaked mountain road crumbled beneath their armored personnel carrier. The vehicle slid down the mountainside into a ravine and exploded. A French soldier also died in the crash. U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark, supreme allied commander, Europe, and U.S. Army Gen. Eric Shinseki, NATO's stabilization force commander, attended the ceremony on Sarajevo's Mount Igman. At the time of the accident, the American diplomats were part of a U.S. delegation negotiating a Balkan peace initiative. Frasure, 53, was special envoy to the former Yugoslavia. Kruzel, 50, a former Air Force officer, led Pentagon efforts toward NATO enlargement and Partnership for Peace. Drew, 47, was director of European Affairs on the National Security Council staff. In September 1995 at a memorial service at Fort Myer, Va., President Clinton honored the three peacemakers "who gave their lives seeking for others the blessings we Americans hold dear and too often take for granted." A corridor was dedicated in Kruzel's honor Jan. 24, 1996, at the Pentagon.
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