A Memorial
On Saturday October 13th a coworker was killed on Gulf Road in Kuwait by a hit and run driver. I made the official identification, witnessed the body being sealed a coffin for transport, and escorted the coffin from Kuwait to San Francisco.
Stephen Shaw
For the last 5 months of his life, I was Stephen Shaw's boss, teammate, and friend. We were both on loan from the TAC-SWACAA program to help out on the Recruiting Team. The team's assignment was to achieve 100% Manning for TAC-SWACAA and maintain 100% of all job vacancies are filled with qualified information technology professionals. Stephen's contribution to achieving this goal was significant. Stephen brilliantly found qualified technical candidates and interviewed them for vacant positions. The candidates he found and recommended for hiring were top-notch.
Working in the Middle East, we are far from friends and family. We become each others family while we are there. The Recruiting Team was Stephen's family in Kuwait.
We work 12 hours a day, 5 days a week from 7:00AM to 7:00PM East Coast Time of the US which is 2:00PM to 2:00AM in the morning Kuwait Time. We work behind a computer or on the telephone all night. To take a break in the middle of the night, some of the team would walk down from the 19th floor of the building where we work to the ground floor. However, as you can imagine, only a few would walk back up 19 stories. Stephen and I did.
We stopped every 5 stories or so to rest. We tried to make it half way up to the 10th floor for our first rest break. Every day one step at a time, we climbed up 19 stories. Every day one step at a time, we achieved 100% Manning for the Program.
Stephen had a great attitude -- always upbeat, smiling, and helpful to others. He was recently promoted to the Southwest Asia Cyber Center (SWACC). Another co-worker on loan to Recruiting, worked in the Cyber Center but was new to Kuwait. On Saturday, that fateful day, Stephen was planning to meet with him to share information about Kuwait and learn about work in the Cyber Center.
We do not know exactly what happened but we do know that Stephen rode the bus from where lived to the Sarah Complex where he was to meet his new friend. He crossed three busy lanes of traffic to the median in the middle of the street. Before he could cross the second set of traffic lanes he was hit by a vehicle and the driver drove away. Stephen was always cautious crossing that street so it is hard to imagine what happened. A bad thing happened to a very good man - a father, husband, and brother to a beautiful family.
Stephen's Kuwait family is very sadden by this loss of a team mate and friend. Stephen leaves behind a wife, three grown children (two sons & one daughter), a son-in-law, a brother and two sisters. The family traveled from Taiwan, New Jersey, and Texas to attend the funeral service in California. Stephen's final placement is at the Chapel of the Chimes in Hayward, CA. The funeral was Friday October 26, 2012
