CIA honors officer killed in the line of duty in Yemen WASHINGTON -- At Jeffrey Patneau's funeral in October 2008, his family was not allowed to talk about where he had worked or what he had done. He was described as a State Department employee, which was his cover. "It was very difficult, because people would start surmising lots of things, and we had to just be quiet," said his father, Bob Patneau. As some family members knew, 26-year-old Jeffrey Patneau was actually a covert officer in the CIA. He died in September 2008 from injuries sustained in a vehicle accident on the streets of Yemen's capital, Sana, the CIA disclosed this week. A star in his memory was carved this year on the CIA's Memorial Wall in the lobby of the old headquarters building on the agency's campus in Langley, Va. "Jeff proved that he had boundless talent, courage and innovativeness to offer to our country in its fight against terrorism," CIA Director David H. Petraeus said during a ceremony Monday in the lobby. He was taken from us just as he had begun what promised to be a brilliant career and a life of great consequence -- one of faithful service to the people he loved and to the nation he revered. Patneau was the 103rd CIA officer recognized as having died in the line of duty, and this week his was one of 15 names disclosed as covert officers who died in the last 30 years. The other 14 names already were represented by stars on the wall, but their identities had not been officially revealed. Born in Hennepin County, Minn., Patneau grew up in Virginia and Illinois, his father said. He played defensive tackle on his high school football team and studied business at Augustana College in Illinois. "He was an aggressive, good officer," said a retired CIA officer with long Middle East experience. Jeffrey Patneau's younger brother, Jonathan, is a Marine officer who served in Iraq, said their father, himself a retired Marine officer and former special operations reservist. Bob Patneau said he raised his children "to honor their parents and family, to honor their country, to honor their God, and do the things that were necessary to show that." Patneau joined the CIA as a recent college graduate in July 2006, and he "demonstrated an exceptionally high degree of skill and initiative during his short career," said Todd D. Ebitz, a CIA spokesman. He had served in Yemen for about 1.5 years at the time of his death. By 2008, Yemen had become an extremely dangerous posting. Al Qaeda militants were mounting regular attacks on government installations. The U.S. Embassy, where Patneau was based, was attacked in March and again in September, when 19 guards and civilians were killed outside the gate. "Mr. Patneau responded to the March 2008 bombing of the embassy in Sana and later attacks with the energy, focus and calm proficiency of a seasoned officer," Ebitz said. He received several awards for his outstanding work. At least two other CIA officers have died in road accidents in the last decade, said a former senior officer who did not want to be named discussing his former agency's secret work. "The fact is we're driving in places where the roads are terrible and the drivers are terrible, and the statistical odds are that we will lose people to car accidents," he said. Ebitz said Patneau had asked to serve next in Iraq or Afghanistan. Patneau's father said he would never get over losing his firstborn son but that he respects the path Jeffrey chose. "It can't always be somebody else's son, or we're not going have a nation," Bob Patneau said. Somebody's got to stand up and do what must be done.