On this day in 1973, terrorists from the Palestinian Black September Organization (BSO) killed three hostages: U.S. Ambassador to Sudan Cleo A. Noel, Jr., DCM George Curtis Moore, and the Belgian Chargé d’Affaires Guy Eid.

The day before, the BSO had raided the Saudi Arabian embassy in Khartoum, taking ten hostages including the three men above. The terrorists demanded a plane and the release of Arab militants. When President Nixon stated that the U.S. “did not pay blackmail,” the American and Belgian hostages were allowed to write letters home to their families and then killed twelve hours later.

You can read on at the link to learn more about the terrorist attack on the Saudi embassy and how the attack affected those working in the U.S. embassy in Khartoum.

Ambassador Ron McMullen started his Foreign Service career as an intern in the U.S. embassy in Khartoum, Sudan. It was not the typical internship experience to say the least.

He arrived at his summer internship not knowing Arabic, lost luggage, and before the embassy even knew they’d be getting an intern. Things only got wackier from there.

You can read on at the link to find out more about the internship that made the ADST interns alternatively say, “What? That’s amazing!” and “On second thought, I’m glad that wasn’t my internship…”