Clinton honors young diplomat Brian Adkins (1983-2009)

 

A reader of this blog brought to my attention Secretary Clinton’s moving remarks about Brian Adkins, a young Foreign Service officer who was tragically killed in Ethiopia earlier this year. Adkins was only 25. A 2007 graduate of George Washington University, Adkins (pictured at left) was on his first assignment as a Foreign Service officer.

Clinton delivered her remarks May 1 at the American Foreign Service Association’s memorial plaque ceremony. Herself the mother of a young adult, she was audibly choking up at one point (starting at about three minutes into the video above). Clinton said:

Brian Adkins was a smart, talented, and generous young man — everything that his country looks for in a Foreign Service officer. Wherever he went, he made an impression and he made a difference. As an undergraduate at George Washington University, he was a leader in Catholic service groups on campus. He was so industrious that when he left for Ethiopia, one of his friends said, “It took three of us just to fill his shoes.”

Adkins’s father, Dan Adkins, told ABC News, “He loved his country, he loved his job, he loved his family.”

Video: U.S. State Dept.; Photo: thumbnail from GW Hatchet