The Foreign Service Journal, February 2003

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 3 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 31 F O C U S O N D A N G E R Z O N E S A N FSO RELATES HOW SERENDIPITY PLAYED A HELPFUL ROLE IN FACILITATING ONE PARTICULAR EVACUATION . B Y R AYMOND M AXWELL t may be a cliché that every evacuation is different, no matter how long you are in the Foreign Service and how many you are involved with, but it is also true. In the Operations Center, we helped facilitate some 19 evacuations during the 12 months I worked there — several more than the yearly average for the recent past. Yet the 1998 evacuation of American personnel from Guinea-Bissau will always stand out in my memory. During my stint as a watch officer in the Operations Center that year, we I Russell Charpentier G UINEA -B ISSAU E VACUATION : A N O PS C ENTER V IEW Continued on page 34