President Barack Obama, followed by Chaplain Colonel J. Wesley Smith and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, walks towards the podium during the transfer of remains ceremony at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, Sept. 14, 2012, marking the return to the United States of the remains of the four Americans killed this week in Benghazi, Libya.
With dignity and compassion, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and President Barack Obama, held a service for the four men killed in Libya at Andrews Air Force Base yesterday.
Both their remarks—Clinton's and Obama's—offered us touching glimpses into the four men's lives.
CLINTON: Glen Doherty, who went by Bub, was also a former SEAL and an experienced paramedic. He too died as he lived, serving his country and protecting his colleagues. Glen deployed to some of the most dangerous places on Earth, including Iraq and Afghanistan, always putting his life on the line to safeguard other Americans. Our thoughts and prayers are with Glen’s father Bernard, his mother Barbara, his brother Gregory, his sister Kathleen, and their grieving families, friends, and colleagues.
OBAMA: Glen Doherty never shied from adventure. He believed that in his life he could make a difference, a calling he fulfilled as a Navy SEAL. He served with distinction in Iraq and worked in Afghanistan. And there in Benghazi as he tended to others he laid down his life -- loyal as always, protecting his friends.
Today Glen is home.
CLINTON: Tyrone Woods, known to most as Rone, spent two decades as a Navy SEAL, serving multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since 2010, he protected American diplomatic personnel in dangerous posts from Central America to the Middle East. He had the hands of a healer as well as the arms of a warrior, earning distinction as a registered nurse and certified paramedic. Our hearts go out to Tyrone’s wife Dorothy, and his three sons Tyrone, Jr., Hunter, and Kai, born just a few months ago, along with his grieving family, friends, and colleagues.
OBAMA:Tyrone Woods devoted 20 years of his life to the SEALs, the consummate quiet professional. At the Salty Frog bar they might not have known, but Rone also served in Iraq and Afghanistan. And there in Benghazi he was far from Dorothy and Tyrone Jr., Hunter and little Kai. And he laid down his life, as he would have for them, protecting his friends.
And today Rone is home.
CLINTON:Sean Smith joined the State Department after six years in the Air Force. He was respected as an expert on technology by colleagues in Pretoria, Baghdad, Montreal, and The Hague. He enrolled in correspondence courses at Penn State and had high hopes for the future. Sean leaves behind a loving wife Heather, two young children, Samantha and Nathan, and scores of grieving family, friends, and colleagues. And that’s just in this world. Because online in the virtual worlds that Sean helped create, he is also being mourned by countless competitors, collaborators, and gamers who shared his passion.
OBAMA: Sean Smith, it seems, lived to serve: first in the Air Force, then with you at the State Department. He knew the perils of this calling from his time in Baghdad. And there in Benghazi, far from home, he surely thought of Heather and Samantha and Nathan. And he laid down his life in service to us all.
Today Sean is home.
CLINTON:I was honored to know Ambassador Chris Stevens. I want to thank his parents and siblings, who are here today, for sharing Chris with us and with our country. What a wonderful gift you gave us. Over his distinguished career in the Foreign Service, Chris won friends for the United States in far-flung places. He made those people’s hopes his own. During the revolution in Libya, he risked his life to help protect the Libyan people from a tyrant, and he gave his life helping them build a better country.
People loved to work with Chris. And as he rose through the ranks, they loved to work for Chris. He was known not only for his courage but for his smile – goofy but contagious – for his sense of fun and that California cool.
In the days since the attack, so many Libyans – including the Ambassador from Libya to the United States, who is with us today – have expressed their sorrow and solidarity. One young woman, her head covered and her eyes haunted with sadness, held up a handwritten sign that said “Thugs and killers don’t represent Benghazi nor Islam.” The President of the Palestinian Authority, who worked closely with Chris when he served in Jerusalem, sent me a letter remembering his energy and integrity, and deploring – and I quote – “an act of ugly terror.” Many others from across the Middle East and North Africa have offered similar sentiments.
OBAMA: Chris Stevens was everything America could want in an ambassador, as the whole country has come to see. How he first went to the region as a young man in the Peace Corps; how during the revolution he arrived in Libya on that cargo ship; how he believed in Libya and its people, and how they loved him back.
And there in Benghazi he laid down his life for his friends, Libyan and American -- and for us all.
Today Chris is home.
A Moment of Silence
The ceremony in its entirety is here.
Rest In Peace.