Final Days and Final Thoughts

After a long, exhausting hike up Mount Ophir full of steep climbs, big bugs, and treacherous descents, we finally made it to the last leg of our journey in Southeast Asia. Our final two days were busy as we toured a geoscience/metereology consulting company, attended the US Navy 7th Fleet Commander's update brief, visited the US Embassy in Singapore, and experienced the rich Singapore culture.

Our first order of business was to meet with Jenny Hibbert, a contact of Professor Barrett's who works at Fugro. Fugro is a multinational company with headquarters in the Netherlands that provides geotechnical engineering as well as surveying, meteorological, and subsea services. Clients range from oil/gas companies to new, offshore wind power companies. To carry out the different needs of clients, Fugro consists of a variety of employees specializing in geoscience, weather forecasting, satellite communications and positioning, and autonomous systems.

Jenny was kind enough to give us a tour of the company's building in Singapore. She specifically works as part of the weather forecasting team that provides up-to-date weather predictions to support various sea-based operations. The 24-hour, seven days a week weather monitoring station was very impressive. She then showed us the satellite positioning station, where the engineers are able to pinpoint locations of assets around the globe down to the centimeter level of accuracy. Our tour also included a visit to the geoscience labs, where they conduct soil testing for infrastructure purposes, and the survey division, which plans drilling and cable-laying procedures along with aerial/ship-based mapping of the ocean and land. The survey division also included a very interesting demonstration of their vision-based systems to control infrastructure assembly at sea. Overall, it was very interesting visit full of eye-opening technology and driven, passionate people.

In the afternoon, we made our first visit to the United States Embassy in Singapore. LCDR Zimet, the assistant naval attache in Singapore, hooked us up big time with a face-to-face visit with the acting ambassador (or charge d'affairs) of Singapore, Ms. Stephanie Syptak-Ramnath. We were honored to have a great discussion with her as she described the tasks of an ambassador, her unique route from the Navy to the Foreign Service, and her first-hand experience in organizing the recent summit between President Trump and Chairman Kim-Jong-Un of North Korea. I'm not sure what all I'm allowed to say about that, but in general, it was clear that her and her staff worked incredibly hard to pull all of that off. We were certainly lucky to have such a great dialogue with her.

Ms. Syptak-Ramnath, LCDR Zimet, Professor Barrett, and the mids.

That night, we traveled to the Chinatown section of Singapore to try some more local foods and experience the distinct Chinese culture of Singapore. The Chinatown streets were bustling with shops, fruit stands, and amazing-looking food. We finally chose a restaurant where we ordered a variety of authentic Chinese dishes including a signature Singaporean dish, the chilli crab. Afterwards, we roamed the streets, stopping to try durian (can't say I was a huge fan) and perusing the local markets and the unique goods they sold.

After a fun night at Chinatown, we had to get back to business the next day with the C7F Update Brief (C7F = Commander, 7th Fleet). We woke up before 0600 and groggily called a taxi to cross the Singapore island to Sembawang on the northern coastline. Led by LCDR Zimet, we entered an impressive conference room as officers of a much, much higher rank than us filtered in and took their seats at the table. Finally, RDML Tynch, the commander of CTF-73 (CTF-73 = Commander, Task Force 73, Logistics Group Western Pacific) entered and took his place at the head of the table. The update brief was then carried out via

Singapore Chinatown district

video-conference, as all of the CTF's in 7th fleet made their separate reports to the 7th fleet commander headquarted in Yokosuka, Japan. I'll be perfectly honest: I understood very little of what went on during the brief. There were an extraordinary amount of acronyms, maps, and schedules all under the secret classified level. However, it was clear during the brief (which is held each week) that all of the CTF commanders understood each other and worked very well together in their communications with the 7th fleet command.

After the brief, we were able to meet face-to-face with a few of the officers in CTF-73 including RDML Tynch himself. Despite the command presence he had shown in the brief, he talked with us midshipman in an honest, down-to-earth manner. He answered all of our questions on his duties as the CTF-73 commander and East Asian naval operations in general, and also gave us solid advice for service selection and our future as junior officers in the fleet.

Although, the C7F update brief was long and slightly draining, we were back at it again in the afternoon with our round-table discussion at the US Embassy with a range of defense attache staff and Foreign Service members. The range of topics we were able to discuss with highly experienced professionals was astounding. From Singapore's foreign military purchases to its cyber-security and political environment, we learned about many meaningful aspects of the the unique nation of Singapore that transcend simple facts and figures. Once again, much of the discussion was classified at the secret level, but one of the big takeaways is that, despite its small size, Singapore is absolutely a determined and influential entity within Southeast Asia (and frankly, the entire world). We also learned from the valuable experience of all the officers we met as they related their career paths and personal experiences with us. Once again, LCDR Zimet deserves a huge thanks for enabling this rewarding experience.

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Our final night in Southeast Asia was relaxed and calm as we were somewhat fatigued from the previous three weeks of travelling around Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. To put a cap on our cultural experience here in the region, we took a leisurely walk to the Marina Bay waterfront to see the iconic "Merlion" statue/fountain. The Merlion represents Singapore's transition from a small fishing village to a giant, influential city in a short span of 53 years. As we walked along the beautiful Esplanade bridge with the Singaporean skyline standing dramatically in the sunset, I found myself reminiscing on the our incredible experience in the Maritime Continent.

I will preface my overall reflections with this: I had never left the North American continent before this trip, so I am certainly still naive about the various cultures and communities of the world. However, I believe this excursion to Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore was the best way to experience the true international world for the first time. From day one in Jakarta, we were in a completely different atmosphere and culture from the United States. It was extremely tropical and humid, the roads were overrun with mopeds, stalls selling bizarre foods lined the streets, and people stared at you and spoke in a rapid, exotic language. It was truly a plunge into the unknown for me, and I initially felt slightly stressed and completely incompetent.

However, one of the most fundamental things I learned during this trip is that, at the heart of all cultures, people are just simply human. All the people we met in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore still smiled the same as we did, laughed as we did, and were more friendly as the average American. Now, I am aware of the fact that the reception we experienced could possibly be attributed to our obvious foreigner/tourist appearance. But from our Ijen crater guide Selamat cracking crude jokes with us to CAPT Suhaimi and his family's hospitality in their invitation to join them for a traditional Muslim dinner, I can safely assert that generous, heart-warming people are ubiquitous in the Southeast Asian region. This seems to be true across all of the environments and cultures we encountered: from the huge, crowded megacities to the rural villages in the shadows of volcanoes; from the impressive, modern hub of Singapore to the tradition and sense of duty at the Indonesian Naval Academy.

There are many more intricate observations and reflections from our time here that have been mentioned in previous posts, and I will not revisit them here. But this surprising revelation of the open, engaging, friendly culture of the Southeast Asian people certainly has made a lasting impact on my mind, and it deserves a special focus as we all reflect on this LREC. It inspires me to seek out other cultural experiences in the world and to learn different languages so that I may communicate with others on a more authentic level. I will also remember this distinct culture in any future dealings with Southeast Asia as a naval officer or civilian.

Finally, I would like to thank all those who made this trip possible and memorable for us. This includes the USNA International Programs Office, the Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore DAO staffs (especially LCDR Gobert for leading the Indonesian Naval Academy visit), CAPT Suhaimi, all of the Singapore USNA alumni, our guides in the national parks, and many others. And most importantly, huge thanks to Professor Barrett for creating and organizing this trip in the first place: that's an incredibly difficult and time-consuming task, and the LREC couldn't have worked out much better.

Thanks for all who read these blog posts! I hope we were able to paint a small picture of our adventures in Southeast Asia.

The mids in front of the Merlion Statue in Singapore.