The Foreign Service Journal, February 2003

My watch team had recently fin- ished updating the Watch- stander’s Guide to the Universe, a reference book then used by the Ops Center to locate working- level contacts in U.S. govern- ment agencies in Washington, so I had a pretty good idea where to start. First, I phoned the National Military Command Center, but without result. I then called the Naval Command Center in Washington, but they referred me to the United States European Command in Stuttgart, which had responsi- bility for all official U.S. military operations in Africa. Stumped, the watchstanders at EUCOM told me to phone the office of the Commander-in-Chief, Naval Forces Europe in London. It was evening there but luckily, the CINCNAVEUR Duty Quartermaster, Petty Officer Samuels, was still in the office. He promptly referred me to the Naval European Meteorology and Oceanography Center in Rota, Spain. Within 30 minutes, NEMOC faxed to the Ops Center the tidal predictions for Bissau for the next week, enabling us to identify the best time to undertake the evacuation using the port of Bandim. The evacuation was effected the next day. For several hours the embassy employees were out of radio contact with the task force as they made the journey to the pick-up point on the river, carrying with them their pets and a few possessions. Eventually, they arrived and were picked up by a dinghy from a small tanker that transported them along the coast to neighboring Banjul. F O C U S 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 35 For several hours the embassy employees were out of radio contact with the task force as they made the journey to the pick-up point, carrying a few possessions. T HE R EMINGTON