Remarks at Heroism Award Ceremony for Three Diplomatic Security Special Agents

(As delivered.)

AMBASSADOR TAYLOR: Good morning, I’m delighted to be here today with the Deputy Secretary to publicly honor these three young men. Special agents Ray Kyliavas, Alston Richardson, and Christopher Belmonti for their acts of heroism and courage during their deployment to Haiti in February of 2004.

The Award for Heroism recognizes acts of courage or outstanding performance under unusually difficult or dangerous circumstances, such as sustained superior performance while under threat of physical attack or harassment; or an individual act of courage or exceptional performance at the risk of personal safety. This award is signed and approved by the Secretary of State.

These three special agents are assigned to the Diplomatic Security Office of Mobile Security Deployment—MSD. MSD teams are a specially trained, it says here, elite force, but I’ll say are a specially trained elite part of the global force because we’re all elite in what we do. But they are specially trained to deploy on a moment’s notice globally to provide security for our embassies and personnel all over the world and they have done that successfully for the last 3 years that I have been associated with them. They can dispatch worldwide to protect American interests and personnel on less than 24-hours notice. We recognize that their service, while gallant in the line of duty, cannot happen without the support of their families, loved ones, and friends. So we’re delighted to have you here today to help us recognize their service because this is one team and one family. Without your support they would not have been able to service us so well.

Now it is my pleasure to introduce to some, and to reintroduce to others, the Deputy Secretary of State, Mr. Richard Armitage. Mr. Armitage.

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE: Good morning. Thank you, Frank, for your kind introduction. Ladies and gentlemen, special agents, friends, colleagues, and family members, I'm delighted to have a few minutes to spend with your family today, which is also our family, Frank.

To be a diplomat these days, I believe you have to be an optimist. In a sense, our job is to look at the world, a place full of violence and disease and poverty, and see a future of peace, of good health and prosperity. Given that we all have to live in the present, it can be hard work, sometimes, to be an optimist, and harder still to come up with the ideas and the strategies that can move us toward that better future. Indeed, it takes tremendous courage to get this kind of work done. So as you walk down these halls, I can assure you that you stand in the company of heroes.

Well, there are heroes, and then there are heroes. I suspect no part of this institution spends more time dealing with that gap between the world as we want it to be and the world as it is than Diplomatic Security. Last February, for Special Agents Kyliavas, Belmonti, and Richardson, that meant going to Haiti. Now, I know it’s been an eventful year, but if you think back to last Christmas, you may remember that Haiti was in flames; her cities exploding with rage as President Aristide sat in his palace doing little to stop the country's slide into anarchy, and much to spur it on.

By February, the situation had so deteriorated that we made the decision to evacuate our people. The three men we honor today were part of a team who carried out that order. Now, you have to understand the context for today's award. The entire team went into a dangerous situation -- one that was life-threatening on a daily basis. In effect, they were all heroes for just doing their jobs. But these three special agents even went beyond that remarkable job description and acted with extraordinary courage in extreme circumstances.

Of course, these individuals have long cultivated the habits of heroism. Raymond still serves in the Army National Guard; Christopher Belmonti was a police officer before he came here to the Department of State; and Alston Richardson was an Army helicopter pilot. Now since joining the Foreign Service, they have deployed many times to the front lines of diplomacy -- from East Timor, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, to Afghanistan and to Iraq.

Indeed, Special Agent Kyliavas returned from his latest assignment to Baghdad just last week. I suspect he finds it hard to believe that his deployment to Haiti less than a year ago was his first for the Department of State. On that mission, he was helping to evacuate 125 United Nations staffers from their compound in Port-au-Prince. And they ran into barriers of burning tires, rubble, and ruined cars. At one of these makeshift checkpoints, a group of at least 20 armed thugs had pulled a man from his vehicle and stood surrounding him. Agent Kyliavas jumped out of the relative comfort of an armored car and confronted the mob who fled in the face of his resolve, if not the gun he had leveled at them.

Agent Belmonti's unit was on the way from the Ambassador's residence to a safe house, when they came across the eerie sight of an Embassy truck full of bullet holes. Investigating the scene, he found a woman on the ground with a gunshot wound to the head, and her hands tied behind her back. As gunfire erupted on all sides, Special Agent Belmonti freed the woman and saved her life at direct risk to his own.

In another part of the city, Agent Richardson was helping to protect the new President of Haiti as they moved this brave man to a safer part of the city. As they did that, the team came under heavy automatic weapons fire. With no hope of escape, this very small detail was preparing to fight their way out of the fusillade when Special Agent Richardson put himself in the direct line of fire to better assess the situation. He determined that the gunfire was not directed at the President, and helped guide the team to safety through sustained hostile fire.

So we come together to recognize the selfless courage of these three special agents. At a fitting time in this season of peace and grace, we can all be thankful that this nation is so well served.

Gentlemen, thank you for your extraordinary service and all you do to help make this a better world.

Thank you.

(Applause.)

AMBASSADOR TAYLOR: Thank you Mr. Armitage for those stirring remarks. We will now make the presentation of the Heroism Awards. Ray, if you would come forward and stand next to the Deputy Secretary.

This is the citation to Ray Kyliavas.

Ladies and gentlemen that concludes the formal portion of today’s ceremony. We ask you to join us in coming forward to recognize these men for their heroism in the line of duty and for their example of what Diplomatic Security does--not only for our Department but for our nation on a day-to-day basis. Thank you very much for joining us.

Congratulations.

(Applause.)