The Foreign Service Journal, November 2018

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2018 31 Vince Crawley served as a public affairs writer with the Bureau of Diplomatic Security from 2014 to 2018. A former journalist, he has spent half his career overseas and entered public service in 2005 with the Department’s Bureau of International Information Programs. From 2007 to 2014, Mr. Crawley worked on Department of Defense Africa programs. The couriers’ mission has not changed, but their scope of work and responsibility have expanded dramatically. BY V I NCE CRAWL EY T oday’s diplomatic couriers are special- ized freight and cargo expediters who daily travel the globe safeguarding our nation’s most sensitive shipments. They still supervise the safe delivery of classi- fied documents, of course, as did their predecessors over the past century. But now they also safeguard the shipment of equipment and construction materials to nearly every location where American diplomats live and work. “It takes charm, nerve and self-confidence,” says Stephen Don- ovan, deputy director of the Diplomatic Courier Service. “Every game we play is an away game. We’re never inside the friendly confines of the embassy, where people are prepared to cooperate with us. Day in and day out, we are taking these pouches and try- ing to get them through places where airport security is trying to prevent unscreened things from getting through.” State Department couriers can be found on tarmacs around the world, working with local authorities to facilitate the load- From Pouches to Cargo Diplomatic Couriers Today A diplomatic courier on the Miami-to-Havana run in 2017. U.S.DEPARTMENTOFSTATE/DIPLOMATICSECURITYSERVICE COVER STORY DIPLOMATIC COURIER SERVICE CENTENNIAL