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ML_drew_bkp.htm
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Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke (R) walks behind U.N. French Marines carrying the flag-draped coffin August 20 of one of three senior U.S. officials who were killed in a road accident on Bosnia's treacherous Mount Igman. (Photo by Chris Helgren/Reuters)
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Samuel Nelson Drew
Drew became the first U.S. casualty of the Bosnia conflict
By Bethanne Kelly Patrick
Military.com Columnist
The first U.S. casualty of the Bosnia conflict was an Air Force colonel who "seemed less like a military officer than an academic," in U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke's words. Part of the team that included Holbrooke and Gen Wesley Clarke, Col. Samuel Nelson Drew was working toward a diplomatic settlement to a violent conflict when when a car accident took his life.
In 1995, Drew was appointed Director of European Affairs for the National Security Council. He held two political science degrees: a master's from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a doctorate from the University of Virginia. He also had Balkan experience, gained when he headed a NATO task force on Yugoslavia.
That August, Drew and his group of senior U.S. diplomats and military officials set out for the Sarajevo airport. They took the Mount Igman route, which Holbrooke described as "the most dangerous in Europe." Nevertheless, the road was was the only way to reach the embattled city and its airport without going through Bosnian Serb lines.
They never reached their destination. Swerving to avoid an oncoming convoy, their French armored personnel carrier ran onto the soft shoulder of the treacherous road. Extensive rains had soaked the narrow red-dirt track, and the shoulder gave way, plunging the vehicle and its occupants down a steep slope.
Drew and deputy ambassador Robert Frasure were killed instantly, while Joseph Kruzel, the senior deputy assistant Secretary of Defense, died later. While there were no indications of hostile military action, and the incident was deemed an accident, the men were the first casualties of U.S. involvement in the Bosnian conflict.
Their deaths shook Washington, D.C., policymakers. "Nelson's ideas played a major role in the formulation of the new U.S. diplomatic initiative that he was helping to present to the parties before this terrible tragedy occurred," said National Security Advisor Anthony Lake said. "He was an excellent military officer, a strategic thinker, and an extraordinary human being." |
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