1999 Year in Review

 Highlights:

• Visit of the new Department of State CFO, Bert Edwards January 1999 who came to the Department from Arthur Anderson.

• Travelled to the Charleston finance center for a  conference in February.

• The Year of Y2K the year 2000 when the "millennium bug" would attack all computers worldwide.  It was barely a problem but my boss Rob McAnneny questioned my leaving a year early before my assignment was up.  In reality it was for Patrick who had some issues and wasn't doing well in the French school.   

• Departed Paris July 16, 1999

• Transferred to Washington D.C. in August and moved back into our house in Falls Church that had been rented the 12 years that we were overseas.

• Started one-year tour at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) as an Instructor in the Financial Management Officer (FMO) course, thanks to Janet Beuschel and Tom Quinzio.  Janet retired in December 1999 but is still working in retirement at the International Cooperative Administrative Support Services (ICASS) center in Washington. 

• Teaching at FSI was an excellent "bridge" tour to get acclimated back to the U.S. and use my experience as an FMO.  I continue to maintain contact with one of my students, John Bredin, who has done well with assignments in Bangkok and London and now on his way to Paris to be director of the Financial Support and Training Office (FSTO).      

• I remember playing FMO Jeopardy with students to reinforce learning about systems and regulations.  I taught mainly cashier supervison, financial planning segments, and updated the  Certifying Officer course.   

Favorite Memories:

• Bike rides around and outside Paris and along the Canal St. Martin and Canal de l'Ourcq.

• Attending French Open tennis tournament and the Women's final when Steffi Graf defeated Martina Hingis 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.  Andre Agassi won in the Men's final, 1–6, 2–6, 6–4, 6–3, 6–4, against former world No. 4 Andriy Medvedev.

• Trips to SHAPE commissary in Belgium for shopping.  Patrick learning to drive.

• In June a Visit to Paris of my friend from Peace Corps days, Jack Colbourn.  We made a weekend trip to the Loire valley and remember having problems with the car.  

• In July attended a four week Wine course at Le Cordon Bleu.

• Good timing for both Jeffrey, who was starting High School at George C. Marshall, Baccalaureate program, and Patrick entering middle school.

• It was long after I started working at FSI I bid on a position as a Management Inspector with the Office of Inspector General (OIG).  I had a meeting with Hal Fuller in October to discuss the job and was successful in being assigned to the OIG for a two year tour beginning the summer of 2000.   

U.S. Events:

• US Senate opens impeachment trial of President Clinton; Senate acquits Clinton and rejects censure move.
• John William King, 24, a white supremacist, is convicted of murder and sentenced to death in case involving the dragging death of a black man, James Byrd, Jr..
• Students Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, storm Columbine High School in Littleton , CO, killing twelve other students and a teacher, then themselves.
• John F. Kennedy Jr., wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her sister Lauren G. Bessette are lost at sea when a plane he was piloting disappears near Martha's Vineyard, off Mass. 

World Events:

• Russian president Boris Yeltsin survives impeachment hearings (May), reshuffles his cabinet twice (May, Aug.), and takes military action against Islamic separatists in Dagestan and Chechnya.
• Nelson Mandela, first black president of South Africa, steps down (June 16), and Thabo Mbeki takes over.
• War erupts in Kosovo after Yugoslavia's president Slobodan Milosevic clamps down on the province, massacring and deporting ethnic Albanians. NATO begins Operation Allied Force on March 24, 1999, launching air strikes against Belgrade for 78 consecutive days until Milosevic relents.
• Magnitude 7.4 earthquake kills more than 15,600 and leaves 600,000 homeless in Turkey.
• East Timor population votes for independence from Indonesia, which causes pro-Indonesian forces to massacre and uproot thousands of East Timorese.
• Pakistani government is overthrown in the midst of economic strife and intensified fighting with India over Kashmir.
• The world awaits the consequences of the Y2K bug, with more drastic millennial theorists warning of Armageddon.

Movies:

Best Picture was ''Shakespeare in Love''.  Best actor Roberto Benigni, ''Life Is Beautiful''.  Best actress Gwyneth Paltrow, ''Shakespeare in Love''.  Supporting Actor James Coburn, ''Affliction''.  Supporting Actress Judi Dench, ''Shakespeare in Love''.  Director Steven Spielberg, ''Saving Private Ryan''.  

Super Bowl:

Super Bowl XXXIII.  The Broncos defeated the Falcons by the score of 34–19, winning their second consecutive Super Bowl. The defending Super Bowl champion Broncos entered the game with an AFC-best 14–2 regular season record. The Falcons, under former Denver head coach Dan Reeves, were making their first Super Bowl appearance after also posting a 14–2 regular season record.   Aided by quarterback John Elway's 80-yard touchdown pass to receiver Rod Smith, Denver scored 17 consecutive points to build a 17–3 lead in the second quarter from which Atlanta could not recover. In the final game of his career before his announced retirement on May 2, 1999, he completed 18 of 29 passes for 336 yards with one touchdown and one interception, and also scored a 3-yard rushing touchdown. At 38 years old, Elway became the oldest player, at the time, to be named Super Bowl MVP, a record that stood until Tom Brady surpassed it in 2017 at the age of 39, coincidentally also against Atlanta.  

World Series:

The 1999 World Series featured the Yankees against the Braves which the Yankees swept in four games.  It was the Yankees' third straight defeat of the Braves franchise in the Fall Classic (having beaten the Milwaukee Braves in the 1958 World Series in addition to their 1996 victory over the Atlanta Braves). Yankees closer Mariano Rivera was named the World Series Most Valuable Player.  This was the first World Series to feature both number-one seeds from the AL and NL, which would not repeat again until 2013.

Attended the 1999 French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros that saw Steffi Graf defeat Martina Hingis in the women's singles and Andre Agassi defeat Andre Medvedev to capture the men's.