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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Slain U.S. diplomat ‘doing what she loved’

Smedinghoff

CHICAGO – Anne Smedinghoff had a quiet ambition and displayed a love of global affairs from an early age, joining the U.S. Foreign Service straight out of college and volunteering for missions in perilous locations worldwide.

So when the 25-year-old suburban Chicago woman was killed Saturday in southern Afghanistan, her family took solace in the fact that she died doing something she loved.

“It was a great adventure for her. … She loved it,” her father, Tom Smedinghoff, told the Associated Press on Sunday. “She was tailor-made for this job.”

Anne Smedinghoff grew up in River Forest, Ill. She attended Johns Hopkins University, where she majored in international studies.

Her first assignment for the Foreign Service was in Caracas, Venezuela, and she volunteered for the Afghanistan assignment after that. Her father said family members would tease her about signing up for a less-dangerous location, maybe London or Paris.

“She said, ‘What would I do in London or Paris? It would be so boring,’ ” her father recalled.

Smedinghoff was an up-and-coming employee of the State Department who garnered praise from the highest ranks. She was to finish her Afghanistan assignment as a press officer in July.

Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday at a news conference in Turkey that Smedinghoff was “vivacious, smart” and “capable.” Smedinghoff had assisted Kerry during a visit to Afghanistan two weeks ago. He also described Smedinghoff as “a selfless, idealistic woman who woke up yesterday morning and set out to bring textbooks to schoolchildren, to bring them knowledge.”

The U.S. Department of Defense did not release the names of the other Americans who died: three soldiers and one employee.

“It’s like a nightmare; you think will go away and it’s not,” her father said. He added, “We take consolation in the fact that she was doing what she loved.”