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Paula Loyd Dies 2 Months After Afghan Attack
FrontLines - March 2009
Paula Loyd
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Paula Loyd, 36, a former USAID officer in Afghanistan, died Jan. 7 from burns she suffered
in an attack two months earlier while serving as an adviser to U.S. troops in an Afghan village.
In a memorial ceremony at USAID headquarters in Washington Feb. 3, Loyd’s parents
and colleagues recalled her service to the Afghan people during difficult times.
“It was an honor to have worked with your daughter—she was an inspiration to me,” said Tom Baltazar, head of the USAID Office of Military Affairs.
Loyd was “a quiet professional—
when she spoke people listened,” he added.
The political counselor of the Afghanistan Embassy, Ashraf Haidari, said that President Hamid Karzai respected her as “a true dedicated humanitarian.”
“I found her [to be like] an Afghan,” said Haidari. “The Afghan nation is truly grateful for her service.”
After working as a USAID field program officer in the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Zabul Province in 2004, she worked with the United Nations, helped the Afghan elections, and helped organize the Ft. Bragg training program for new officials heading
out to spend a year in PRTs (see the FrontLines article in the November 2008 edition for more information). Eager to get back into the field, she worked as a “human terrain advisor” to U.S. troops, helping them to negotiate the complex Afghan culture as they patrolled Taliban-infested regions.
On Nov. 4, while patrolling the village of Chehel Gazi, an Afghan man, Abdul Salam, threw gasoline on her and set her ablaze. Her bodyguard, Don M. Ayala, working for BAE Systems based in Rockville, Md., later shot and killed the man.
Ayala was later charged in U.S. courts with killing Salam while the Afghan was in custody. On Feb. 3—the same day as the memorial service for Loyd at USAID—he pleaded guilty to manslaughter across the Potomac River in Alexandria federal court.
Loyd was burned over 60 percent of her body and taken to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, where she died Jan 7.
Patricia Ward, Loyd’s mother, told the memorial gathering that her daughter had “found the Afghan people to be elegant, generous, and hospitable.”
“She made a list in case something
happened, and after she died, I pulled it out. Instead of tears, I’m reading away. We found we have to get up because she’s left us so much work to do.”
Loyd’s note said: “Mom—I want you to go to Afghanistan” and it listed specific people she should meet and where to stay in Afghanistan, Ward said. “I’d like to do what she said, but we are not as clever or smart or educated
as she was,” Ward added.
Loyd asked her parents to continue
her work—to set up a foundation
to educate Afghan girls, especially in the south where restrictive customs leave them without rights or schooling.
Khalil Rahat from Zabul Province, Afghanistan, said he met Loyd when he was working as an interpreter during the parliamentary
election in 2005. “Paula did so much for the people of Zabul,” he said, resolving a conflict after staying
with two rival tribes for almost a week in the desert along with the provincial governor and provincial tribal leaders.
“I will never forget her,” he said. “She was so kind to all Afghanistan people and we love her as our sister. I want Paula’s mother to know that your daughter
was a brave lady and we will never be able to have a lady like her again.” .
★ – B.B.
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