The Foreign Service Journal, June 2020

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2020 39 ple through police barricades to reach international airports. “People were calling us from Cuenca saying they had no way to get to the airport,” he said, “because taxi drivers were scared.” They didn’t want to make the four-hour drive and risk arrest for breaking curfew. So consular staff came up with the idea to procure a letter from the U.S. ambassador requesting Ecuadorian law enforcement to grant safe passage for American citizens to travel to the airport. It worked. “The best ideas,” says Kaypaghian, “often come from the bot- tom up,” from officers working the issues on the front lines. “After a few days, we were able to work with mission teams in manage- ment, regional security and consular sections to organize buses from Cuenca and Manta to get people safely to the airport.” An Airport Bon Voyage Consular staff donned face masks and gloves and headed to the airport, helping with logistics and calming frayed nerves of American travelers. First-tour officer Amelia Hintzen remem- bers the exhaustion of spending a full day fielding congressional inquiries on American citizens, then heading to the airport that night to support passengers leaving on a 2 a.m. flight. “It was chaos. People just needed so much help,” says Hint- zen. She remembers lending people her cell phone to call their parents in the States, and translating information from airport personnel to scared Americans. “I was exhausted, but then the adrenalin kicked in,” she says. “What hammered home for me was how important it was for people to see the U.S. embassy there.” Hintzen described how passengers were visibly relieved to see mission staff wearing cargo vests with the American flag on them: “It was like we Despite consular teams working around the clock, flights were intermittent, and it took weeks to get stranded Americans out.