![\"diplomatic\"](\"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/diplomatic.jpg\")
<\/a>\nGloria Kilgore (\u201960) chose her major in business education thinking that she would either teach or enter the business world.<\/p>\n
Then the \u201ctravel bug\u201d intervened.<\/p>\n
A four-decade career in foreign service with the U.S. Department of State fulfilled Kilgore\u2019s drive to see the world. Even now, she recalls a book she read as a child about a couple\u2019s African travels and her fascination when Christian missionaries serving in China spoke at her church. \u201cI\u2019ve always had this desire to travel,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She applied and was hired for an entry-level foreign service position, living for six months in Washington, D.C., at the YWCA until leaving for her first overseas assignment – Istanbul, Turkey.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first joined, I said I\u2019d stay two years to get this travel bug out of my system,\u201d said Kilgore. \u201cI retired 42 years later.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a regional office manager, Kilgore made official visits to more than two dozen countries and visited many others on her own. Each locale held a unique experience, she said. While stationed in London, \u201cI think I put 30,000 miles on my car just traveling England. I visited someplace new every weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite warnings about what she should avoid eating, Kilgore enjoyed literally taking in the local flavor. \u201cI tasted everything,\u201d she said. \u201cIn Istanbul, when I walked to work I went by the bakery and would buy a loaf of crusty and delicious bread fresh out of the oven. One afternoon, the fishermen had just come in with their catch and had a frying pan on the boat and were frying the fresh fish and selling it. I couldn\u2019t resist this delicious fish sandwich. I ate on the streets in China, Laos and Thailand.\u201d She was only sick once from bad food in India after eating in a five-star hotel.<\/p>\n
In Istanbul, Kilgore watched from her balcony as Soviet ships passed through the Bosphorus Strait in support of Cuba during the 1962 missile crisis. She visited Viet Nam while stationed in Laos, regularly flying in to American air bases for refueling in the war-torn country. She was a member of the diplomatic staff supporting President Lyndon Johnson\u2019s visit to Thailand in 1966 and President Richard Nixon\u2019s 1972 visit to Moscow during the Strategic Arms Limitation (SALT) talks, and was working in the office of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger when Nixon resigned. She worked President Ronald Reagan\u2019s 1985 visit to Bonn for a summit with European leaders.<\/p>\n
At one point, Kilgore was detailed to the White House as a gifts officer during the Clinton Administration, cataloging incoming and outgoing gifts to the President. \u201cIt was a lot of fun,\u201d she said. \u201cThere were some very nice gifts \u2013 some very expensive and some very creative gifts from children.\u201d She drafted thank-you notes, all according to strictly prescribed protocol. \u201cThere was always an official thank-you for each gift,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was working in Washington on Sept. 11, 2001,\u201d said Kilgore. \u201cWe were evacuated out of the building onto the streets. We were able to see the smoke billowing from the Pentagon. Normally it took me 40 minutes to get home, but it took two hours that day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Through all the massive changes in technology Kilgore witnessed \u2013 from typewriters to desktop computers and transatlantic cable messages to encrypted satellite links \u2013 one thing has remained constant. While governments often clash and customs differ from nation to nation, individuals the world over share much in common. \u201cThey\u2019re people just like we are,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alumna Recounts U.S. Department of State Career<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[36],"class_list":["post-3959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","tag-fall-2011"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}