Visit from Marco Rubio! and other embassy happenings

Exciting things have been happening at the US Embassy in Athens! At the start of October, Secretary Marco Rubio visited. It was a cool thing to be part of! Adam had one quick brush with Secretary Blinken back in 2023 but this was a much bigger deal that we were much more involved in. Because of his position as one of the GSOs (General Service Officers...State Department acronyms are unending), Adam did a lot of prep work, especially with the airport, making multiple trips to the airport beforehand to make sure logistics were in order. He was there as the Secretary ("S" ...like I said, the acronyms are out of control, and in the Department, the fewer letters you have the cooler you are) arrived in a US plane driven by Airforce pilots. The media personnel exited the back of the plane to be ready to get their photos of him coming off the plane. Once "S" was off the plane and on his way, Adam stuck around the airport while the plane was parked (again by Airforce personnel). Fun fact: the plane was guarded 24/7 by US soldiers while here for it to be considered safe. The safety inspection is so rigorous that it's easier to have the plane guarded 24/7 than to have it safety certified again before leaving. 

The next day there was a meeting at the embassy for employees and family members. The secretary pulled up in a big impressive motorcade, participated in a small group embassy dedication meeting where a bishop from the Greek Orthodox church prayed and dedicated the building, then came into the atrium where the big group was waiting. He gave a speech then answered three planned questions. We all then posed for a group picture. After that, there was one surprise question for him. A little background: the embassy just finished an 8 year construction project so part of the visit was to celebrate its completion. The meeting was in the atrium which has a big piece of 'music art.' Again, I'm no humanities professor so didn't know such things were a thing but they are. This music art piece is a big gong hanging from the ceiling. (I promise I have a point in talking about this.) Anyway, so it had been planned that Eve would ask him the surprise question: "Mr. Secretary, would you please bang the gong for us?" He was fun about it and told Eve he would ring it but wanted her to help. So they walked around the crowd to the music art piece together where he was handed a mallet and struck the gong, then handed it to Eve and she did the same. Not gonna lie...it was a pretty cool moment! 

So ya, Eve's basically a celebrity. Notice in the picture directly above, Kimberly Guilfoyle is at the front left. She'll figure later in the post. After that, the Secretary attended other meetings, including giving a speech on the Acropolis. 

The next day Adam went to the airport early to make sure all was in order for "S" leaving. He was part of the team by the way--it wasn't just him. There was a group of them all making sure things were in order. Before the secretary left he answered some questions for the media. 

Here's the close up of Adam's big moment. Kind of like Mike Wazowski: "What can I say? The camera loves me?"  

After the interview, "S" shook hands with everyone (that was Adam's closest personal interaction with him) then he took off. Adam did get to practice for someday when he's making his visits as "S" or some other single letter position ;) 

All in all it was a cool thing to be part, and also nice to have done as it was pretty crazy for Adam and most of the embassy folks ahead of time. As they were all basking in a job well done, stories started popping up in the news regarding scandals involving Kimberly Guilfoyle, ambassador to Greece from the US. Every day a new story came up for about a week, until the administration asked her to resign which she did. Based on what I've seen, I'm not sad to see her go. Definitely more of a Hollywood than diplomat vibe. Adam has been involved in helping her get back to the US (plane tickets, packout, etc). She left last week and wow! what a project it has been. 

The last event to blog about was Emmy and me participating in the "Mogadishu Mile" run, hosted by the Marine Security Guards at the embassy. (Embassies and some consulates have 24 hour protection by Marines.) It is to honor those who died in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993. It's a long story but basically what was supposed to be a quick operation turned into overnight fighting. Some soldiers were trapped behind enemy lines and when tanks were sent in, there wasn't enough room in the tanks for some of the soldiers so they had to run behind to get to safety. It was also the battle where two helicopters were shot down ("Black Hawk Down"). I learned that this battle was a turning point in military strategy for the US, previously believing that a well-trained warrior was most important. After Mogadishu, outfitting the soldiers became more of a focus too. Anyway, many Marine groups do memorial runs every October. An invitation went out to everyone in the embassy community and Emmy and I decided to participate. We put on body armor vests which weigh about 15 pounds with no ammo or weights in them. It doesn't sound like much but I could feel it burning my calves as we ran on Mt Lyccabettus right behind the embassy. It was a two mile run and I did OK but have to brag about Emmy who kept up with the soldiers!