Top US diplomats leave State Department

Top US diplomats in the State Department's senior management
team are leaving their posts during President Donald Trump's first
 week on the job.

Their departure puts more pressure on the incoming Secretary
 of State Rex Tillerson, who is still awaiting confirmation by
 the Senate, to fill the crucial positions that keep the
Department running smoothly.

They include the Undersecretary for Management Patrick
 Kennedy, two assistant secretaries, Joyce Barr and Michele
 Bond, and Gentry Smith, who directs the office of foreign
 missions.

This quartet were among a number of senior employees at
 the State Department who had submitted resignations for
 their current posts, which were limited-term appointments, as
 is Standard practice during a transition.

These four were career foreign service officers who'd had years
 of experience managing both the department and foreign
missions, and they leave a void.

"It's the single biggest simultaneous departure of institutional
memory that anyone can remember, and that's incredibly
 difficult to replicate," a chief of staff for former Secretary of
State John Kerry, David Wade, told the Washington Post.