Third Way Dispatch

This week brought the sad news of the untimely passing of retired Major General Kathy Frost, who was the Army’s highest-ranking woman when she retired last year and the wife of former Representative Martin Frost. Kathy Frost died after a four-year battle with breast cancer. She was 57.

We at Third Way did not have the privilege of knowing General Frost very well, but we were fortunate enough to have had her participate (along with her husband and 60 other senior military, political, academic, journalism and business leaders) in a weekend-long national security retreat that we co-hosted last fall with The New Republic. Her varied 31-year career in the military provided a unique perspective on the subject that we were grappling with that weekend – restoring progressive credibility on national security – and we all learned much from her insights.

Her contribution to the event truly culminated in its closing hour, when the group was role-playing in scenarios that tested how progressive leaders should handle various aspects of national security. Kathy’s group was dealing with a fictionalized humanitarian crisis in Africa, designed to look much like Rwanda or Darfur. After much dispassionate, analytical discussion among her colleagues about American interests and the use of power, Kathy broke character to give an impassioned speech about the need for American intervention to prevent humanitarian catastrophe: “When I was in the military, I accompanied US officials touring Rwandan refugee camps in Congo and Tanzania” she said. “And we watched as they bulldozed the bodies of children – dozens and dozens of children – into mass graves.” Her eyes welled with tears as she said: “I vowed then that I would do everything I could to make sure this country never again stands by in the face of such savagery.”

This country needs leaders like Kathy Frost – with the courage to rise through the ranks of the military as a path-blazing woman in the Army and with the moral conviction to press America to live up to its potential. We mourn her passing, and we send our heartfelt condolences to Martin and the rest of her family.