The DipNotes » Uncategorized http://thedipnotes.com A career abroad serving America in the U.S. Foreign Service Fri, 16 Dec 2011 17:27:46 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Baghdad bound http://thedipnotes.com/2010/06/12/baghdad-bound/ http://thedipnotes.com/2010/06/12/baghdad-bound/#comments Sat, 12 Jun 2010 06:50:30 +0000 Peter Kennett http://thedipnotes.com/2010/06/12/baghdad-bound/ After much discussion, Megan and I decided it would be a good idea to take an assignment to the sand box together. The chances of being assigned there as a tandem are really high, the extra R&R breaks and extra pay will be fun, and hazardous posts usually help our career progression.

Baghdad assignment opportunities came out this week, and I found two I really like – one in the INL (Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement) and IM (computer systems). I sent off my resume to both, and INL has shown a lot of interest. They’ve called and emailed my colleagues and told one that so far I am high up on their list. The POL/MIL (Political/Military) office in Baghdad also saw my resume and emailed that they are very interested as well. No word from the IM folks.

It appears in all likelihood I’ll get one of these jobs, so now I need to make sure Megan gets a job too. That will be the deal-breaker. It’s pretty cool to have the cards in my hands for a change!

]]> http://thedipnotes.com/2010/06/12/baghdad-bound/feed/ 2 Where’s the updates? http://thedipnotes.com/2010/06/05/wheres-the-updates/ http://thedipnotes.com/2010/06/05/wheres-the-updates/#comments Sat, 05 Jun 2010 01:49:32 +0000 Peter Kennett http://thedipnotes.com/2010/06/05/wheres-the-updates/ Sorry for not updating this blog in such a long time. I’ve been quite busy at work lately, plus getting away on weekends as much as possible.

The Embassy is hosting the Secretary of Defense (Gates) this weekend, and participating in the Shangri-La Dialogue (http://www.iiss.org/conferences/the-shangri-la-dialogue), a few Congressional Delegates, we just got our new Ambassador two weeks ago, my office is hosting an OSAC (http://www.osac.gov) meeting next week, plus my office (Regional Security) is hosting a large reception at the Ambassador’s residence in two weeks. Add to this the preparations for the 4th of July Event, always a big thing at U.S. Embassies around the world. Then I am working towards my Dive Master SCUBA certification at a beautiful resort in Malaysia – about 4 hours from home!

I’ll try and get a posting up with some more photos soon!

Peter

]]> http://thedipnotes.com/2010/06/05/wheres-the-updates/feed/ 1 Fun and Paranoia http://thedipnotes.com/2008/09/23/fun-and-paranoia/ http://thedipnotes.com/2008/09/23/fun-and-paranoia/#comments Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:24:08 +0000 Peter Kennett http://thedipnotes.com/?p=253 Today I started my FACT (Foreign Affairs Counter Terrorism) course. This is a week-long course we take before being assigned to a war-zone. In the class today, we learned how to detect when someone is surveilling us. Then all afternoon we drove back and forth along a 3 mile route in town while agents were assigned to discreetly watch us, tail us, and plan an attack on us at a vulnerable point along our route.

We had to try and spot them, and document that we were being followed and monitored. We also had to document where along our route we were most vulnerable and show how we could change our routes and driving times to make us harder to hit. This was to simulate driving from our home to the Embassy and then back.

In the end we got attacked at the main spot that we knew we would, and had correctly spotted 3 of the 4 agents targeting us. We also incorrectly marked 5 others who we thought were watching us, but in fact were just regular people that were not doing anything.

- Tomorrow will be emergency medical care and disaster training. – Wednesday, we head down to Winchester, VA to learn how to use an assortment of automatic weapons. Megan enjoyed this part when she went to Baghdad! – Thursday we do evasive – counter terrorism driving training at Bill Scott raceway, also in Winchester. – Friday we learn about IED’s and go blow some cars up! Cool!

]]> http://thedipnotes.com/2008/09/23/fun-and-paranoia/feed/ 0 Welcome to the Foreign Service Institute! http://thedipnotes.com/2008/07/21/welcome-to-the-foreign-service-institute/ http://thedipnotes.com/2008/07/21/welcome-to-the-foreign-service-institute/#comments Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:08:18 +0000 Peter Kennett http://thedipnotes.com/?p=242 (coming soon)

]]> http://thedipnotes.com/2008/07/21/welcome-to-the-foreign-service-institute/feed/ 0 My Turn to Join The Foreign Service! http://thedipnotes.com/2008/05/13/my-turn-to-join-the-foreign-service/ http://thedipnotes.com/2008/05/13/my-turn-to-join-the-foreign-service/#comments Mon, 12 May 2008 16:06:21 +0000 Peter Kennett http://thedipnotes.com/?p=239 (coming soon)

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