Hot spots, cool head: Latest stop is Liberia

Rescuing Americans from trouble overseas is a Valley native's specialty.
& lt;a href=mailto:milliken@vindy.com & gt;By PETER MILLIKEN & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
MINERAL RIDGE -- A native of this community is helping Americans evacuate war-torn Liberia. Michael Meszaros, 46, a 1974 graduate of Mineral Ridge High School and a former Marine, is no stranger to the world's trouble spots. Wherever Americans are in trouble, Meszaros goes to assist them.
For more than 16 years, he has been a career foreign service officer with the U.S. State Department. Based in Washington, D.C., he has gone on numerous assignments to assist Americans in distress in trouble spots, including Colombia, Haiti, Somalia, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Sierra Leone and once, previously, in Liberia.
Meszaros, a son of George and Pauline Meszaros of Mineral Ridge, works with the Bureau of Consular Affairs, Office of Overseas Citizen Services.
Dangerous
"It's a worry -- all of them -- because he is always going to these, what I call, Godforsaken places. It's just a worry all the time. It doesn't get better. He's in harm's way and you just can't help but worry about it," his mother said.
"That's his life," she continued. "He likes that adventure, I guess. He always did.
"I would rather he be here in the states, but he is doing what he loves to do, and we're proud of that."
"The last time he was there they had to fly him out on a helicopter because the roads were all mined," his father said of a previous African assignment in Somalia. "Anybody who gets in trouble, he gets them a visa or whatever the problem is -- tries to settle the problem.
"As long as he enjoys what he's doing, that's his life. I leave him alone. When he's 46, his dad can't tell him what to do anymore."
Ever since he was a child, Michael was interested in and knowledgeable about aircraft, his father recalled.
As for the origin of his interest in foreign service work, "He always was interested in geography and history. He's kind of a history buff," his mother said.
For almost two weeks, he has been at the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia, Liberia, where the commissary was destroyed Monday by mortar fire.
Most recently, he was seen on national TV wearing a bulletproof vest while helping American aid workers into a helicopter that would evacuate them to an American ship offshore.
Spoke with wife
His wife, Mary, with whom he resides in Lorton, Va., spoke to him Thursday by telephone. "He told her the electricity in the embassy is sporadic and the phone service is even worse," his brother, Mark Meszaros of Weathersfield, said.
"He told her that he was all right -- for her not to worry -- and that it's getting pretty hectic," said Pauline Meszaros. "They e-mail each other because the phone connections are no good from Liberia."
Everyone in the U.S. Embassy compound in Monrovia is sleeping on a gym floor in a centrally located building protected from gunfire by surrounding buildings. On Wednesday, 31 Marines were flown to the embassy to augment the nine already on security duty there.
Accomplishments
A voracious reader, Michael Meszaros received a bachelor's degree in political science from Youngstown State University and his law degree from John Marshall School of Law in Cleveland.
In 1996, Secretary of State Warren Christopher presented him with the meritorious honor award for helping families of victims of the air crash in Cali, Colombia.
"He was a big history buff in high school and he won some history competitions in high school. He's definitely a guy you don't want to play Trivial Pursuit with," his brother said.