DIA Memorial Wall
{{Short description|Memorial to DIA employees}}
{{distinguish|CIA Memorial Wall}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox military memorial|name=Patriots Memorial|body=Defense Intelligence Agency|image=Memorial Wall at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).jpg|image_size=250px|caption=A dated photo of the golden honeycombs as of 2004.|commemorates=DIA employees who died in the line of service|location=Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, Washington, D.C., U.S.|designer=|inscription="A grateful nation recognize those who made the ultimate sacrifice while protecting our freedom"|dedicated=1988 by LTG Leonard Perroots|commemorated=27}}The Defense Intelligence Agency Memorial Wall, commonly known as the Patriots Memorial, is a memorial at DIA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., dedicated to those agency employees who lost their lives in the line of their intelligence work whose deaths are not classified.{{Cite web |title=Patriots Memorial |url=http://www.dia.mil/About/PatriotsMemorial.aspx |publisher=Defense Intelligence Agency |access-date=1 May 2019}} Each loss is represented by an inscription in a "golden honeycomb". In March 2009, the memorial was redesigned and moved to a new location within DIA headquarters.
History and description
The wall was first dedicated on 14 December 1988 by Director Leonard Perroots at the DIA Headquarters, honoring those DIA personnel "who died in the service of the United States". It "commemorates the profound individual sacrifices made on behalf of the United States by DIA members and acts as a reminder of the selflessness, dedication, and courage required to confront national challenges..."
Criteria for inclusion
The DIA does not provide detailed criteria on who is eligible for inclusion on the memorial. The wall is presumably not exhaustive due to omission of DIA personnel with links to classified missions, such as DIA officer Charles Dennis McKee, who died as a result of the Lockerbie bombing.Rowan, Roy. [http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,159523,00.html "Pan Am 103: Why Did They Die?"], Time, 24 June 2001. McKee is notably absent on the DIA wall, whereas his CIA partner Matthew Gannon is honored on the CIA Memorial Wall. The majority of the disclosed DIA fatalities are either a result of terrorist attacks or accidents and acts of violence directed against overt employees.[http://www.dia.mil/history/memorial/patriots_memorial.pdf "Patriot's Memorial"] (PDF) {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512042524/http://www.dia.mil/history/memorial/patriots_memorial.pdf |date=12 May 2013 }}, Defense Intelligence Agency, 2012, Retrieved: 14 September 2013 While CIA has a practice of marking the deaths of its private contractors on its memorial wall,Warrick, Joby. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/07/AR2010060704790.html "CIA honors 12 officers, contractors killed in action"], The Washington Post, 8 June 2010 the number of DIA contractor losses, if any, is unknown.
=Controversy in counting personnel=
Unlike the more expansive memorial at the DIA's fellow defense agency the NSA – which includes members of all military elements operating on behalf of or assigned to the NSA – the DIA's interpretation of "personnel" and what it means to die in the line of duty has remained opaque to the public. During Operation Babylift, the U.S. Defense Attache Office (DAO), a branch of the DIA, lost 35 personnel, but of these the DIA included only five individuals on its memorial wall, excluding the remaining 30 deaths of DAO staff.DIA History Office, [http://www.dia.mil/News/Articles/ArticleView/tabid/11448/Article/566960/remembering-the-first-operation-babylift-flight.aspx "Remembering the First Operation Babylift Flight"], 3 April 2014[http://www.dia.mil/public-affairs/news/2013-11-13.html "Honoring Those Who Served"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131126032637/http://www.dia.mil/public-affairs/news/2013-11-13.html |date=26 November 2013 }}, Defense Intelligence Agency, Retrieved: 15 November 2013 This type of unclear accounting led to some controversy before the DIA memorial was even created. In 1983, American citizen Jim Poulton threatened to sue the U.S. government for records after repeatedly failing to confirm whether his parents Orin Poulton and June Poulton, who perished during Operation Babylift, were DIA employees. Following years of wrangling, it was revealed that Orin, although working for the DIA's Defense Attache Office at the time, was actually being paid by the U.S. Navy, and as such was not considered a member DIA personnel for bookkeeping purposes. Similarly, June Poulton was a civilian paid by the U.S. Army. Kenneth E. Geisen, the DIA spokesperson at the time, said "I'm not denying it. I'm not confirming it...DIA would have no reason to cover up anything". When asked about honoring these civilians on war memorials, the DIA spokesperson said that "Well, [dying while] coming back on an airplane [during the Vietnam War] is just like getting killed on the Beltway here in a car accident". The Poulton family was billed thousands of dollars for coffins and transportation for the bodies of Orin and June, but they refused to pay; in the end, the government did not insist on payment.George Esper. "No Honors Yet for Civilians Who Died in the Vietnam War". The Daily Reporter, 8 September 1983. Associated Press.{{Full citation needed|date=May 2019}}
Individuals memorialized
| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
! width="150" |Date of Death ! width="150" |Name ! colspan="2" |Cause of Death |
| colspan="3" |1970 |
|---|
| 10 June 1970
|Major Robert P. Perry, USA |Shot and killed by a Fatah gunman in Amman, Jordan while serving as an assistant military attaché. Perry was returning home with his wife and children and was shot through the front door of his house as he opened it for his family. |
| colspan="3" |1975 |
| rowspan="5" |4 April 1975
|Celeste M. Brown | rowspan="5" |Killed in the 1975 crash of a U.S. Air Force C-5 Galaxy during an emergency landing at Tan Son Nhut Air Base, South Vietnam. The flight was supporting Operation Babylift. |
| Vivienne A. Clark |
| Dorothy M. Curtiss |
| Joan K. Pray |
| Doris J. Watkins |
| 20 December 1975
|Abducted by the KGB in Vienna, Austria and died while being renditioned to Czechoslovakia. A former Soviet Navy commander who defected to the United States in 1959, Shadrin was working in DIA's Soviet Directorate when he was abducted. The official account of his death and location of his body remain unknown. |
| colspan="3" |1982 |
| 18 January 1982
|Colonel Charles R. Ray, USA |Assassinated in Paris, France by a Lebanese communist militant of the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Faction while serving as an assistant military attaché. |
| colspan="3" |1984 |
| 21 January 1984
|Chief Warrant Officer Robert W. Prescott, USA |Killed in the crash of a Guatemalan Air Force transport plane shortly after takeoff from Guatemala City, Guatemala. Prescott and ten Guatemalans were carrying supplies to Petén on a routine flight when the aircraft developed mechanical issues. |
| rowspan="2" |20 September 1984
|Chief Warrant Officer Kenneth D. Welch, USA | rowspan="2" |Killed in the 1984 US embassy bombing in Beirut, Lebanon by Hezbollah. |
| Petty Officer First Class Michael R. Wagner, USN |
| colspan="3" |1988 |
| 28 June 1988
| Captain William E. Nordeen, USN |Killed by a car bomb in Athens, Greece by the 17 November group. One of five American embassy workers targeted by the Marxist guerilla group, Nordeen had been serving as a naval attaché driving to work when the group remotely triggered a 50lb bomb as he drove by. His car was blown across the street into a fence, and he was ejected from the vehicle. |
| colspan="3" |1996 |
| 15 July 1996
|Judith I. Goldenberg |Stabbed to death in a random act of violence in Cairo, Egypt. A biographer on temporary duty with the Defense Attaché Office, she was killed in the lobby of her hotel. The attacker was arrested at the scene. |
| colspan="3" |1998 |
| 7 August 1998
|Staff Sergeant Kenneth R. Hobson II, USA |Killed in the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya by al-Qaeda. |
| colspan="3" |2000 |
| 23 December 2000
|William W. Bultemeier |Killed by a random act of violence in an attempted carjacking in Niamey, Niger. |
| colspan="3" |2001 |
| rowspan="7" |September 11, 2001
|Rosa M. Chapa | rowspan="7" |All were assigned to the Office of the Comptroller at the Pentagon. |
| Sandra N. Foster |
| Robert J. Hymel |
| Shelley A. Marshall |
| Patricia E. Mickley |
| Charles E. Sabin |
| Karl W. Teepe |
| colspan="3" |2004 |
| rowspan="2" |26 April 2004
|Sergeant Sherwood R. Baker, ARNG | rowspan="2" |Killed in Baghdad, Iraq while providing security for members of the Iraq Survey Group. The group was inspecting a suspected weapons of mass destruction facility when there was a large explosion. Baker was a member of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard while Roukey was assigned to an Army Reserve unit based out of Saco, Maine. |
| Sergeant Lawrence A. Roukey, USAR |
| rowspan="2" |8 November 2004
| Sergeant Don A. Clary, USA | rowspan="2" |Killed in Baghdad, Iraq by a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) while providing security for the Iraq Survey Group as members of the ISG Director's Personal Security Detail. As the insurgent charged the director's vehicle, they placed their vehicle between the insurgent and the protectee, saving the lives of all others present. Both were members of the Kansas Army National Guard. |
| Sergeant First Class Clinton L. Wisdom, USA |
| colspan="3" |2019 |
| 16 January 2019
|Scott A. Wirtz |Killed in Syria in the 2019 Manbij bombing by ISIS. |
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Defense Intelligence Agency}}
Category:Defense Intelligence Agency