The Foreign Service Journal, November 2018

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2018 33 ing construction, with clandestine wires running within poured concrete pillars. These developments caused a massive shift in the Diplomatic Courier Service workload. Ever since, diplomatic cou- riers have also overseen the secure transport of all construction materials for overseas Department of State facilities that handle classified information. Keep On Trucking! Another shift in courier operations took place in the late 1990s, after the European Union deregulated its airline industry so it was no longer dominated by large state-run carriers. The result was a market-driven shift to smaller aircraft with less cargo capacity, at a time when couriers needed to transport even more materials. “The pouch load, especially in Europe, grew in volume,” Sala- zar recalls. “The shipments got bigger and the aircraft got smaller, so we started going overland.” When he first joined the Diplomatic Courier Service two decades ago, “we still had the old model of weekends in Vienna,” Salazar said. “That slowly, gradually disap- peared. We started trucking everything.” Today, many European shipments move by truck out of the regional courier office in Frankfurt. As each departs, a driver and courier will take a short passenger flight to a point several hun- dred miles away, so that a fresh crew can climb aboard there and keep the pouches moving. “We’ve done what we call the modern-day Pony Express,” Sala- zar explains. “We’ll pre-position a courier, let’s say in Copenhagen, and then we have another courier drive there from Frankfurt. The pre-positioned courier takes over in Copenhagen and continues on to Stockholm or Oslo. Then they do the same thing in reverse. So we still use a well-rested driver and courier.” “The material is never static,” adds Deputy Director Donovan. “The material is always moving.” Fly the Friendly Skies The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, led to a major empha- sis on U.S. diplomacy in high-threat locations. At the same time, the Department of Defense shifted its logistical focus toward supporting overseas combat and counterterrorism operations. Ever since the 1940s, the Defense Courier Service had worked in close partnership with State’s Diplomatic Courier Service. This included regularly scheduled military flights to regions with large troop presences—such as Frankfurt, Manama and Seoul— that also overlapped with diplomatic courier hubs. The military traditionally offered the couriers long-haul transport of pouches on a space-available basis free of charge. However, with sustained overseas operations, the Defense Courier Service no longer had excess capacity on its aircraft. As a result, the Defense Department began charging for non- military cargo. The Diplomatic Courier Service researched alternatives and found that in most cases, sensitive cargo could be shipped more cheaply via commercial air cargo carriers such as DHL, FedEx and UPS, on the condition that those carriers allow a diplomatic courier to ride aboard with the aircrew to ensure the cargo remains in U.S. control. ‘Eyes-On’ at All Times Keeping control of sensitive cargo takes teamwork, coordina- tion and backing each other up. “We’re in control,” says Dono- van. “It’s eyes-on every shipment.” “In a perfect world,” says Salazar, “we have two cleared Amer- icans for every iteration. When a courier departs, we should have an escort and courier on the tarmac watching the pouches and counting them as they go into the belly of the aircraft. When that courier boards the plane, we still have someone eyes-on, watch- ing until that cargo door is closed and the plane actually leaves. Then the courier is on board, just in case it gets diverted. “When the plane lands at its destination,” he says, “you have another escort on the ground as the plane parks, as the doors open, and as the courier makes his or her way down to the tarmac.” The courier boarding an aircraft identifies himself or herself to the crew and arranges to exit the aircraft as soon as it reaches its gate. “The courier needs to get on the ground as soon as the door opens to get underneath the aircraft,” Donovan explains. “Because there’s no guarantee the escort has made it either. They back each other up.” Diplomatic couriers pride themselves on never having lost a pouch during a century of operations. And nobody wants to be the one who breaks a 100-year-old track record. For that reason, Donovan says, “We have to be really good at what we do.” Fortunately, they are. n During the final decade of the ColdWar the courier workload began shifting from documents to cargo shipments in earnest.