The Foreign Service Journal, November 2018

28 NOVEMBER 2018 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 1919: Building a Courier Network. In support of peace negotiations, the Silver Greyhounds establish routes to U.S. embassies across war-ravaged Europe: Berlin, Bern, Brus- sels (via biplanes), Bucharest, Constantinople (now Istanbul), London, Stockholm, Tours, Trieste and Vienna, as well as head- quarters of the American Expeditionary Force in Chaumont, France, and including Mediterranean ports via British ships. 1919: Silver Greyhounds Disband. After the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, the U.S. Army’s Silver Greyhounds disband and return to civilian life. The Department of State, however, continues to employ civilians, as well as U.S. Marines, as diplomatic couriers until 1920. 1920s-1930s: Understaffed and Overworked. Always understaffed, courier services periodically disband and restart throughout the 1920s and early 1930s. During the Great Depression, the department briefly eliminates courier services altogether. President Franklin D. Roosevelt reinstates the ser- vice in 1934, and couriers have served continuously ever since. 1941: Washington Headquarters and First Chief of Couriers. With the growing diplomatic pressures of World War II, the Courier Service establishes its first office in Room 109 at the original Department of State site (the Old Executive Office Building, now the Eisenhower Executive Office Building). Edwin Schoerlrich, a Foreign Service officer, becomes the first “Chief of Couriers,” the first central head for the group since Amos Peaslee more than two decades earlier. The Courier Service faces a workload explosion due to the deteriorating global situation. 1941-1945: Collaboration Between Civilian and Military Couriers. U.S. entry into World War II brings a high level of cooperation and overlap between diplo- matic and military couriers, with military personnel frequently assigned to support the Department of State. U.S.DEPARTMENTOFSTATE/DIPLOMATICSECURITYSERVICE The “Silver Greyhounds” in 1918.