[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Page 8160]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                TRIBUTE TO LIEUTENANT COLONEL PETER FORD

 Mr. GRAHAM. Madam President, I ask my colleagues to join in 
recognizing LTC Peter Ford of South Carolina for his extraordinary 
service to the Nation while serving in the United States Army Reserves 
and National Guard for the past 32 years.
  Lieutenant Colonel Ford started his military career in 1981 as an 
enlisted soldier--an infantryman--in the Virginia National Guard. After 
graduating from Gustavus Adolphus College, where he was the only ROTC 
cadet, Lieutenant Colonel Ford was commissioned as a second lieutenant 
in the Army Ordinance Corps. After attending the Officer Basic Course, 
Lieutenant Colonel Ford, in his civilian capacity, was sworn in as a 
special agent with the State Department Diplomatic Security Service.
  While serving as the Regional Security Officer, RSO, at the embassy 
in Switzerland, Lieutenant Colonel Ford was assigned as a military 
intelligence officer at the Military Intelligence Group at the 7th Army 
Reserve Command in Germany. In 1997, he mobilized to support the war in 
Bosnia. Following his return to the United States, he joined the 
Office, Chief of the Army Reserves, as a reserve congressional liaison 
officer and also served as a reservist with the 157th Individual 
Mobilization Augmentee Detachment.
  In 2003, Lieutenant Colonel Ford was assigned as a congressional 
detailee to the Committee on Homeland Security and was named executive 
officer of the 157th. After serving as RSO in Armenia, he was detailed 
to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
  In the fall of 2007, at the beginning of the surge during Operation 
Iraqi Freedom, Lieutenant Colonel Ford volunteered to serve as an Army 
reservist in Iraq. He was attached to the American Embassy in Baghdad 
and, as the director of the Office of Hostage Affairs, was responsible 
for U.S. kidnapping cases throughout the country. Following the 
completion of his military tour, Lieutenant Colonel Ford continued his 
service in Iraq. For an additional year, he worked as a DSS agent with 
the State Department in the same position.
  Returning to the United States, Lieutenant Colonel Ford obtained a 
masters degree from the National Defense Intelligence College and 
joined Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Affairs as a drilling 
Reservist. He was subsequently assigned to the Diplomatic Security's 
Overseas Security Advisory Council, OSAC. In October 2011, Lieutenant 
Colonel Ford took command of the 157th Individual Mobilization 
Augmentee Detachment. During his military and civilian careers, 
Lieutenant Ford has worked in over 110 countries.
  On behalf of a grateful nation, I join my colleagues today in saying 
thank you to LTC Peter Ford for his extraordinary dedication to duty 
and service to the country throughout his distinguished career in the 
United States Army.

                          ____________________