The Foreign Service Journal, March 2022

40 MARCH 2022 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL typical consultation and bringing my expertise to their offices, I provided the supportive therapy that each needed in a confi- dential, comfortable environment. Karen Travers, M.D., is a psychiatrist and regional medical officer based in Amman. Prior to joining the Foreign Service in May 2020, she had more than 13 years of experience working with the Air Force. In 2013 she was chosen to stand up the Air Force telepsychiatry program as a contractor and worked in that position for the next six years. She will transfer to Embassy Jakarta in the fall of 2022. FromAl Udeid Air Base to Kentucky AL UDEID AIR BASE, QATAR Marjon Kamrani In mid-August, around 1 a.m., I met an Afghan evacuee for the first time, standing outside a former U.S. military installation in Doha, probably the hottest place on earth at the time. I had volunteered to relieve my beleaguered U.S. Embassy Doha colleagues, many of whom had spent several sleepless nights assisting U.S. contractors as they pit-stopped in Doha on their way out of Kabul. I expected to spend a day or so with some tired Americans, help procure food, hopefully inspire a laugh and get folks to their families. That all changed when I arrived at Al Udeid Air Base with the embassy Treasury Department attaché, who had responded to the same volunteer request. On arrival, we received word that a few hundred Afghans had unexpectedly landed the night before. Our recently closed Army installation down the road would suffice for their stay, so we headed there. We prepared for what we thought would be around 600 evacuees. There were more, around 8,000 at one point. There are many I will never for- get—the pregnant Afghan air force pilot, the 5-year- old unaccompanied minor, the man carrying a suitcase full of his diplo- mas but nothing else. Over about a month, save a day or two here or there, I learned nearly every nook and cranny at the base. I worked closely with my political-military colleague, who had arrived in Doha for his assignment only one week prior to the evacuation. We did what midlevel State depart- ment officers could in an environment with little guidance, no computers and only a few other State Department staff (until thick-skinned and gold-hearted TDY [temporary duty] col- leagues showed up). We handed out water with our fearless military colleagues, tried to relieve scared Americans, organized legal permanent resident families and visa holders who could fly immediately to the United States, and calmed traumatized people who had left family behind. We talked evacuees down from walking off the base, a sure way to upset the host government. State and Army colleagues spent nights huddled together making plans for the following days—plans that would unfold in messy and confusing ways—but we managed to move hundreds of evacuees off the base almost daily. We also spent time commiserating, bragging about how much weight we lost (at least five pounds on average) and who had found the cleanest bathroom available. I left the effort in early September. Efforts continue but not nearly to the same degree, and now it’s more orderly. At least a hundred evacuees have my phone number. I could always change my number, or not respond to the texts. It’s still hard. That’s what I hear fromone young Afghan evacuee who helpedme with translation. He’s a former NGO human rights worker now in Bowling Green, Kentucky, a one-hour drive from my hometown, Nashville, where he spent Thanksgiving withmy family. He’s there with around 200 other Afghan evacuees. He just received his Social Security card, and he’s thinking of applying to Western Kentucky University. He translates for other Afghans and helps themnavigate a system that he’s also learning to navigate. The children in Bowl- ing Green just enrolled in school, but there is little by way of an immigrant community to support the new arrivals. I hear one family has already experienced a nearly fatal gas leak in their run-down apartment. Their hard part isn’t over. Their happy ending is hopefully unfolding. It’s complicated, tragic, Representatives from State, the U.S. Army and the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration huddle together to discuss the next day’s evacuation efforts at HKIA, August 2021. MARJONKAMRANI