Star Notes
By Richard K. Sele
SHS Class of 1979.
Brigadier General (Retired), US Army
Happy Veterans Day
We have a lot of military veterans among our alumni. Sayville High School did such a phenomenal project by establishing a Wall of Honor in the school to recognize its veterans. I enjoy reading the alumni updates on social media and am always happy to see someone who served. So, to all of our veterans, I thank you for the sacrifices you made for the nation. I also thank your families for the sacrifices they made during your service. People do not realize the profound impact that military service has on family members or those close to a veteran.
Whenever I think of my own deployments, I end up thinking about the people I served with out there. This happens even more on Veterans Day and Memorial Day. Personally, I believe that our government should establish a day of recognition for our government civilians that are always deployed with us now. It should definitely not take any importance over our two aforementioned holidays. It could easily be a day selected at another time of year.
Here’s my reasoning for this. At a minimum, employees from the State Department, US Agency for International Development, and the intelligence community (some of which are independent agencies or part of an existing department or agency) deploy with us for major wars and contingency operations. Depending on the conflict we’ll even partner with the FBI, Customs, and DEA to name a few. They are at many times at the tip of the spear with our military. They may even be the lead agency for a particular conflict.
Every so often we’ll hear about a CIA, NSA, or State Dept officer being killed during combat operations. The total cost of war expands considerably if you also take into account the thousands of contractors working for these interagency partners.
Most of my experience was working with State Department Foreign Service Officers. I worked very closely with one individual in Iraq. We stayed in contact for a little while after I re-deployed. I tried to keep an eye out for his name to see where he was going next. He spent considerable time in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with a few other hot war zones. When I worked with him, he was not authorized to carry a weapon. His State Dept security detail had that covered. He went to all the same places I did and put himself in harms way more times than I can remember. He is a brilliant individual and it was to my benefit to have access to his knowledge in Iraq. I don’t know where he is now but I’m sure he’s doing what he loves most.
In closing, I’ll reiterate my thanks for all of your service and sacrifices. Enjoy your day!
Photo above; Actual retired State Dept and USAID officers working with a Civil Affairs team during a National Training Center pre-deployment exercise. These retirees bring decades of experience and role play their respective agency staff to add realism to the training.
Photo above; Then-Major Sele in Iraq with “Jim”, a State Department Foreign Service Officer. They worked closely together to better understand the complex politics of the province. Their assessments helped inform the commander’s understanding of the operational area.