MCLEAN, Va. – As Americans are stranded in the Middle East amid the U.S. and Israel war with Iran, government and private agencies are working around the clock to conduct evacuations.
In addition to the U.S. Department of State’s 24/7 task force aimed at evacuating Americans, private security firm Global Guardian is also working around the clock to complete the same mission.
As of Friday, Global Guardian has evacuated more than 4,000 people from the Middle East, according to its CEO and President, Dale Robert Buckner.
While operations and logistics teams sit in an office building in northern Virginia, the firm has personnel in more than 140 countries, allowing Global Guardian access to nearly every corner of the world for emergency response or evacuations.
‘We provide medical evac services, we provide kidnap, ransom, extortion negotiation payment if someone is kidnapped or extorted,’ Buckner said. ‘We’re providing about 300 missions a month of executive protection travel, in about 84 countries a month.’
The private security firm also conducts camera surveillance of residences and commercial property and has cyber analysts monitoring mobile devices.
After the U.S. and Israel struck Iran in a joint attack last weekend, the firm has been coordinating multiple emergency response evacuations — but this isn’t the first time it has assisted Americans out of a crisis zone.
‘That means getting people out of Puerto Vallarta a week ago, and Jalisco, Mexico. That means getting people out of Asheville, North Carolina when it got wiped out by a hurricane,’ Buckner said.
Logistically, getting tourists out of a war zone and back to safety is a process, but the firm works fast, completing their first border crossing within the first six hours of the missile strikes.
Immediately, the firm received a call from a pair of students studying abroad, Deputy Vice President of Operations Colin O’Brien told Fox News. He said they were trying to leave Dubai.
‘Within about four and a half hours from the phone call, we had our teams in motion to go pick these people up and it was two college-aged women,’ said O’Brien.
‘Put them in the car, we were then able to move from the Omani border and by eight hours we were at the border. Work through the border checkpoint to a hotel in Muscat, where we could stop and give them a short rest while we arrange their transportation home,’ he says.
The group said it remains active year-round to ensure evacuation plans are in place before disasters strike.
‘There’s a narrative of, here’s the pickup point, here’s the key crossing site,’ Buckner said. ‘This is what you’re gonna need from a paperwork standpoint, legally. And then we’re gonna put you in a hotel or straight onto a commercial flight. Most likely, at this point in the war, we’re gonna put you on a private charter.’
Buckner said most of these missions happening in the region are ground movement, done by locals. He says in the 140 countries the firm is in, they have ground teams working year-round. Consistently training year-round.
‘We’re communicating, we’re coordinating, we’re executing. Executive protection agents, armed agents, armed vehicles, large-scale event support with medical and security personnel,’ he said, describing the firm’s standard operating capabilities.
‘We’re coordinating whether the firm needs drivers. From Dubai to Oman, Israel to either Oman, Jordan or Egypt. Out of Bahrain into Saudi Arabia,’ Buckner said.
While the firm is coordinating with the State Department, it said it has not yet conducted a flight mission on behalf of the department.
Global Guardian offers these services through what it calls a ‘Duty of Care Membership,’ which Buckner said costs $15,000 per year for a family of five.
‘You are going to sign a contract — whether it’s a family, a family office or typically a large corporate logo. Then we become, at your beck and call,’ Buckner said, describing the emergency response services included in the agreement.
For Americans currently stuck in the Middle East, Buckner said the cost of evacuation using ground and air resources varies depending on the situation and location.