The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2020

64 JULY-AUGUST 2020 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Not all jobs were outside and public facing, but all were criti- cal. Approximately 15 volunteers staffed a consular call center to guide Americans through the process and ensure they were ready to travel to avoid empty seats on buses and planes. On-call volunteer drivers supplemented our motor pool, which was nearly wiped out by state-of-emergency restrictions. Officers and LE staff from throughout the embassy—some by telework—sup- plemented management, consular, public affairs and the front office. We even had a volunteer social-distancing monitor. The dedication and willingness to serve of so many members of our community were impressive. The embassy rally point operation team lead was a U.S. Marine Corps major who was in Peru as part of a one-year regional orientation program for foreign area officers. His specialty was combat logistician, so this role fit him like a glove. He kept the teams motivated and the buses run- ning on time. Both he and his wife volunteered, and many other households had several family members participating. The DEA regional director, responsible for all Southern Cone operations, was out there every day, along with his teenage daughters, moving luggage for elderly U.S. citizens. Two LE staff members from the Office of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement who could walk to the embassy took on leadership roles at the consular call center. One family member worked outside with the embassy rally point team and spent her days off working at the call center. A DEA information technology officer provided technical support for public affairs section video messaging. An INL officer coordinated all the movement of intraregional and metropolitan Lima chartered buses and INL aircraft, moving more than 2,000 U.S. citizens from around the country to Lima. When we needed folks to spend the night at the embassy to meet buses arriving before the government-mandated curfew, I didn’t think we would get anyone. But multiple volunteers came forward, more than we needed. There are many more of these stories. In the end, Embassy Lima moved more than 8,000 U.S. citizens from across Peru to the United States over the four-week initial crisis period in an impressive demonstration of resilience and teamwork. People put their day jobs and their egos aside to get the job done. I am proud to have been part of it. Charles Sewall is director of the Office of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement at U.S. Embassy Lima. An FSO, he previously served in Mexico City, Dar es Salaam, Kabul, Addis Ababa, Guadalajara and Havana. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, he was a U.S. naval officer for 21 years. DS and MED Team Up Stephen Donovan ■ Cabo Verde Although the COVID-19 pandemic initially had a limited impact on the Diplomatic Security Service’s Diplomatic Courier Service, we anticipated that something more widespread and hazardous might happen given the nature of the crisis. DCS reached out to our longtime partner in crisis management logistics, the Office of Operational Medicine, to determine if there were any mutual airlift needs or opportunities. As it happened, OPMED had COVID-19 testing equipment and personal protective equipment (PPE) to deliver while we had a cache of mission-critical material to distribute. Together, we organized an ambitious plan to deliver material to more than 24 posts in West Africa and Europe using OPMED aircraft based out of Cabo Verde. We also coordinated complex courier/OPMED itineraries for missions to East Africa, Asia and the Middle East based out of Diego Garcia, an island in the Indian Ocean, and service to South America based out of Miami. Overall, we delivered much- needed material to 77 posts around the world. On arrival in Praia, Cabo Verde, our six-person team encoun- tered our first hurdle when a Cabo Verdean colonel demanded that we leave the tarmac without our classified pouches— something a courier never does. Working in tandem, DCS and OPMED personnel convinced the colonel to allow the team to take possession of our material and to transfer our classified storage and operations center to the small conference room of a nearby hotel. After several shuttles with a police escort, we unloaded the vehicles and lugged the material up the stairs to the hotel that would serve as our home for the next eight days. U.S. Embassy Praia did an outstanding job preparing for our arrival and coordinating the necessary support to move between the hotel and the airport. We were grateful for their help, particu- larly as we were busy until 3 a.m. finalizing inventory, making arrangements for the next day’s flights and setting up a 24-hour classified pouch watch schedule. Amazingly, at 6 a.m. the next day, every member of the team was awake, alert and ready to go. Each day, four team members were on the traveling detail—a courier and OPMED member on each of two separate aircraft—and would work a grueling 18-hour day, deliver- ing medical equipment, PPE and mission-critical classified pouches throughout West Africa. One team member would maintain communications with posts receiving service that day, in addition to coordinating the itinerary and service for