Before entering the Foreign Service Thom Gradisher was a bricklayer, U. S. Marine, actor, stagehand, janitor, student, librarian and university instructor. He joined USIA in 1982 a...view moreBefore entering the Foreign Service Thom Gradisher was a bricklayer, U. S. Marine, actor, stagehand, janitor, student, librarian and university instructor. He joined USIA in 1982 and left the State Department in 2004 when, he says, I started to hear my name and the word Baghdad in the same sentence. Since then he has been living in North Carolina with his wife, Pam Fabian, and, apart from Burning the Ambassadors Desk, has been writing poetry, plays and a cookbook. He is also very proud of his Hungarian Wax peppers.view less