For decades, a memorial has stood inside the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the U.S Agency for International Development. There are dozens of tiles with dozens of names — each representing someone who died while working for what was once the largest aid agency in the world.
There is a tile for Edward Hines, who died in a plane crash over Vietnam in 1972. Albert Votaw, who died in the 1983 bombing of the American Embassy in Beirut. And Andrew Tombe, who was executed in Sudan in 1992.
For years, all three aid workers — and 96 others — were memorialized at USAID. But when the Trump administration began to gut the agency, many were worried that the memorial wall would be the next to fall.
Printing articles to share with others is a breach of our terms and conditions and copyright policy. Please use the sharing options on the left side of the article. Devex Pro members may share up to 10 articles per month using the Pro share tool ( ).
About the author
Elissa Miolene
Elissa Miolene reports on USAID and the U.S. government at Devex. She previously covered education at The San Jose Mercury News, and has written for outlets like The Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Washingtonian magazine, among others. Before shifting to journalism, Elissa led communications for humanitarian agencies in the United States, East Africa, and South Asia.
