411th Civil Affairs Rescuer recounts U.N. diplomat Sergio Viera de Mello’s dying words Not exactly the kind of thing I normally blog. My husband was given a de Mello fellowship to support an internship in Lebanon, and he is writing a thank you note to the sponsor. I did some research on de Mello to help him with it, and the more I googled the clearer it became that Sergio de Mello was the real deal. The kind of true diplomat the UN produces once a generation. It was this article that clinched it. He’s buried under rubble, bleeding out, and he worries they will pull out the UN mission. That’s a hero.