[1]: 16 He served in administrative posts as a Foreign Service officer in various locations including Casablanca, Rabat, Thessaloniki, Athens, West Berlin and London.
[1]: 16 He then became an Economic Officer and served in Vienna from 1961 to 1966 and then in Berlin until 1971, when he returned to Washington, D.C.[1]: 16 In June 1972, he and his family were posted to Beirut, Lebanon, where he had good business and political contacts including the future president, Elias Sarkis.
Ambassador to Lebanon, accompanied by Waring, the U.S. Economic Counselor, were on their way to present Meloy's credentials to the new Lebanese President-elect Elias Sarkis.
[2]: 1 Meloy, Waring and their driver, Zuhair Mohammed Moghrabi, were kidnapped by Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine members as they crossed the Green Line, the division between Beirut's Christian and Muslim sectors.
[2]: 1 Meloy had been in the country a month, but not presented his credentials to the old president Suleiman Franjieh, who had taken refuge outside Beirut and refused to step down.