CIA Discloses Names Of 15 Agents Killed In Action

Their deaths have been memorialized with stars on the wall of the CIA’s former headquarters in Langley, Virginia for years, where 103 star commemorate agents lost in the line of duty.

Now, however, the names of 15 agents slain in the past 30 years have been made public by the CIA in a special ceremony on Tuesday.

According to The L.A. Times, CIA Director David H. Petraeus stated during the ceremony that:

“The 103 souls represented by the stars on the wall behind me all heard the same call to duty and answered it without hesitation — never for acclaim, always for country. Their words and deeds will inspire us forever, and their service and sacrifice will never be forgotten.”

Among the dead are five officers, who were killed in the 1983 U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut, as well as one who was aboard the Pan Am 103 Lockerbie flight of 1988, according to Newser.

Their names are now inscribed in the Book of Honor, a tome that accompanies the stars. The L.A. Times also reports that many of the slain CIA officers were working undercover as State Department employees, and some are even recognized in a memorial list, which is kept on the website of the American Foreign Service Association of diplomats who died in the line of duty.

According to Newser, Ted Gup, author of “The Book of Honor: The Secret Lives and Deaths of CIA Operatives,” named a few of the agents in his book. He stated of the CIA’s Tuesday ceremony that:

“Much of this disclosure is long, long overdue. These families who lost loved ones who were covert not only had to endure the loss — they also were tethered to bogus cover stories for years and years. They had to raise their children without any details or specifics as to what their mothers or fathers gave their lives for.

The most recent death among those listed was of CIA Agent Jeffrey R. Patneau, who died in 2008 at the age of 26. Patneau passed away from injuries sustained in a car accident in Yemen. Click here for the full list of the 15 CIA officers killed in the line of duty.