The Foreign Service Journal, April 2005

Proud to Be an FSO Can you be on a plane in two hours? Of course! I raced home and threw a variety of items into my waterproof yellow duffel bag. First- aid kit, hiking boots, travel clothes, business clothes, Cipro, bug spray, etc. The motor pool driver was a regular Formula One driver on the way to the airport. I could feel my heart racing on the flight. What was in store? How would I handle being in the middle of the crisis? When I arrived at the Bangkok airport, I could see the sign for the American embassy right away, held by FSNs who were directing people to the area for assistance. I ended up staying until well past midnight that day, meeting flights and trying to be a friendly American face in the crowd. The embassy set-up was in an upper-level room with other diplomatic personnel and airline representatives, so my first plan was to make a series of signs that people could follow from the arrivals area up to the embassy area in case some- one failed to notice the embassy representatives. Over the next eight hours, I met countless people staggering off planes from Phuket and Krabi, dazed and injured, looking for fami- ly and friends. Some posted signs with pictures, descriptions and con- tact information. Others just wan- dered, looking toward the automatic doors each time they opened. Many were bruised and cut, mostly below the waist, suffering from a deep cough caused (I learned later) from sand in the lungs or salt abrasions in the windpipe. I helped one woman who had been on a dive boat with her hus- band and child at the time of the wave. Their other two children were asleep in a beach bungalow. At one point, all were separated, but when I met her from the flight, she was trying to reunite with one child who had been taken to surgery at a Bangkok hospital. The more I spoke with her, I realized she needed more than an emergency loan and direc- tions. I rode with her through 45 minutes of crawling Bangkok traffic to the hospital. At first I wondered: should I talk or be quiet? Ask ques- tions or not? But then it just came naturally as she began to recount the horror of feeling the wave, knowing something was dreadfully wrong and wondering about her family back on shore. We wandered through recep- tion, took various hallways and ele- vators and finally managed to find the nurses who were responsible for her child’s case. The nurses offered to bring her food and coffee while she waited for her child to come out of surgery. I left her my card, and as I was leaving, she gave me a big hug and thanked me. Riding back to the airport, I knew that these situations were the reason I joined the Foreign Service. To help people in crisis, to give com- fort, to be in the middle of the action. Not just to watch on televi- sion and feel helpless and distant. Don’t get me wrong: I still watched on television morning and night, felt helpless and sad beyond words. But then I went to work and helped as many people as I could — big ways and small. Adjusting cell phones, guiding people to hospitals and hotels, calling family and friends back in the U.S. to convey news of safety or to express condolences at the lack of news. No words can express the horror and devastation of so many lives extinguished in one terrible instant, but when I saw my colleagues doing everything possible to help Americans in need, it made me truly proud to be a Foreign Service officer. Erin Sawyer General Services Officer Embassy Vientiane ■ 50 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / A P R I L 2 0 0 5