By Cheryl Pellerin
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sept. 14, 2012 – The State Department has identified the two security officers who died Sept. 11 in Benghazi, Libya, while helping to protect their colleagues.
In a Sept. 13 statement, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tyrone S. Woods and Glen A. Doherty were “decorated military veterans who served our country with honor and distinction.”
The attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi also killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and Foreign Service information management officer Sean Smith, and wounded three other Americans who are recovering at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.
The State Department previously identified Stevens and Smith.
On Sept. 12, President Barack Obama issued a proclamation ordering U.S. flags to fly at half-staff until sunset on Sept. 16 in honor of Stevens, Smith, Woods and Dougherty.
Obama, Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta today took part in a dignified transfer of the remains of the four Americans during a ceremony at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.
“Our thoughts, prayers and deepest gratitude are with their families and friends. Our embassies could not carry on our critical work around the world without the service and sacrifice of brave people like Tyrone and Glen,” Clinton said in the statement.
Wood’s friends and colleagues called him “Rone” and relied on his courage and skill, honed over two decades as a Navy SEAL, she added.
“In uniform he served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Clinton said. “Since 2010, he protected American diplomatic personnel in dangerous posts from Central America to the Middle East.”
Woods had the hands of a healer and the arm of a warrior, she said, earning distinction as a registered nurse and a certified paramedic.
“All our hearts go out to Tyrone’s wife Dorothy and his three sons, Tyrone Jr., Hunter and Kai, who was born just a few months ago,” the secretary said.
“We also grieve for Glen Doherty, called Bud, and his family: his father Bernard, his mother Barbara, his brother Gregory and his sister Kathleen,” Clinton added.
Doherty was also a former Navy SEAL and an experienced paramedic who put his life on the line protecting Americans in Iraq, Afghanistan and other hotspots, she said.
“In the end, he died the way he lived -- with selfless honor and unstinting valor,” the secretary said.
Clinton condemned in the strongest terms the attack that took the lives of the Americans, and said the United States is taking more steps to safeguard American embassies, consulates and citizens around the world.
“The violence should shock the conscience of people of all faiths and traditions,” Clinton added.
“We appreciate the statements of support that have poured in from across the region and beyond. People of conscience and goodwill everywhere must stand together in these difficult days against violence, hate and division,” she said.
The secretary said she is enormously proud of the men and women who risk their lives every day in the service of the country.
“We honor the memory of our fallen colleague by continuing their work and carrying on the best traditions of a bold and generous nation,” Clinton said.
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