The Foreign Service Journal, March 2022

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MARCH 2022 53 Temporary Duty in Edinburgh CAMP ATTERBURY, INDIANA John Underriner In August, when the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migra- tion asked if I would be willing to travel on a temporary duty assignment (TDY) to Edinburgh and lead a team in support of Operation Allies Refuge (later changed to Operation Allies Wel- come), I jumped at the chance. I’ve served three Foreign Service tours with PRM and have found it to be the most rewarding work in my diplomatic career. So, within a few days I was on a plane bound for Edinburgh … Indiana, home to Camp Atterbury, an Indiana National Guard training post. As the eighth and final U.S. “safe haven” opened to accept Afghan evacuees, Camp Atterbury began receiving its first arriv- als at the end of August, a few days before I arrived. A week later, we had welcomed more than 6,600 Afghan guests—more than doubling the population of our host town. Many of our guests arrived with little more than the clothes on their back (or got separated from their meager possessions en route), and 40 per- cent were under the age of 15. Although the Department of Homeland Security had the overall lead for Operation Allies Welcome, our 13-member State/ USAID team soon became a center of activity. We were out there interacting daily (and nightly) with the guests; we led on protec- tion issues; we processed independent departures (those who chose to leave before being assigned to a resettlement agency); we chaired strategic communications groups; and we organized social and educational events frommovie nights to chai chats. Our workspace became the unofficial meet-up area whenever anyone needed help. And our team excelled in initiative, creativ- ity and determination. Fortuitously, the team that PRM had cobbled together for Camp Atterbury possessed nearly the exact skill set the situa- tion demanded: My deputy (who took over as team lead after my departure) was a seasoned USAID officer serving as deputy mission director overseas. We had military veterans, logistics and management experts, data analytics gurus, and people with Federal Emergency Management Agency and International Organization for Migration experience, as well as immigration, refugee and humanitarian assistance backgrounds—all of which came in handy as we worked with the Department of Homeland Security, military and medical colleagues, as well as nearly 100 PRM-funded staff from the International Rescue Committee, IOM and Catholic charities. It was a great, mutually supportive and proactive team that worked long hours, seven days a week and got a lot done to sup- port our Afghan guests and prepare them for resettlement and their new lives in the United States. We also benefited from excellent DHS and military leadership and coordination at Atterbury. Nobody does logistics like the U.S. military, and they handled the enormous task of preparing for, welcoming, housing and feeding nearly 7,000 newcomers on short notice—with typical efficiency and can-do spirit. But what will stay with me more than anything from this experience is the remarkable support we received from the local community and, indeed, the entire state of Indiana. “Hoosier Hospitality” is a real thing. From the start, donations of every- thing, from clothing to baby formula, poured in. After an early visit to Atterbury, Governor Eric Holcomb expressed strong pub- lic support for the mission (countering some initial, understand- able trepidation in some quarters) and opened up four Indiana National Guard armories to accept donations; they soon filled up. Numerous volunteers from the area helped, from setting up cultural orientation sessions to organizing sports activities, to distributing donations. A couple of examples typified this phenomenon. One day, a U-Haul truck pulled up to the front gate of Camp Atterbury filled with donated items. As the guard inspected the large quantity of diapers, baby formula, clothes and other items inside, he asked if the impressive load was a combined contribution from a church or local organization. “No,” the driver said matter-of-factly. “This is frommy family.” All for people that woman will never meet and who will never know the generosity of one Indiana family. Another donation came from the family of Marine Corps Cor- poral Humberto Sanchez, one of the 13 service members killed in the suicide attack at the Kabul airport during the evacuation. Cpl. Sanchez was from a town a couple of hours away fromCamp Atterbury, and his parents said they chose to honor his memory by collecting donations for the Afghans he died trying to help. A TDY to Edinburgh that took place entirely within the United States ended up being one of the most challenging and reward- ing assignments of my Foreign Service career. John Underriner is a Senior Foreign Service officer currently serving on the State Department Board of Examiners. He previously served three tours (Bangkok, Baghdad and Washington, D.C.) with the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, which organized and led the Operation Allies Refuge/Welcome effort for State. In September and October 2021, he was the initial team lead for the safe haven at Camp Atterbury, an Indiana National Guard facility.