Surabaya & Akademi Angkatan Laut (Indonesian Naval Academy)

Background: Class of 2019 midshipman at the United States Naval Academy

After having an unbelievable experience at the Ijen crater and spending several peaceful days in the rural town of Banyuwangi, it was time to return to the fast-paced urban atmosphere with our visit to Surabaya. We boarded a smaller ATR turboprop plane for a flight along the Java Sea coastline with beautiful views of volcanoes that dotted the landscape. After the quick flight, we landed in Surabaya (the second largest city in Indonesia) in the early afternoon.

City of Surabaya

The draining heat and humidity, somewhat absent in Banyuwangi, returned in full force immediately upon our arrival. The chaotic and congested traffic during our ride to the hotel compared closely to the streets of Jakarta with mopeds boldly weaving around bumper-to-bumper cars. We even got stopped by a passenger train, although the crossing gates closed several minutes before the actual train passed by. Perhaps this is due to the large amount of people in close proximity to the tracks: there were hundreds of people who seemed to live just a few feet from the tracks where small children recklessly played.

In general, our first impressions of Surabaya compared closely to Jakarta: a sprawling urban area possessing dense traffic with wild moped drivers and mosques on almost every block. However, there were some nuanced differences. Surabaya gave off an older and more authentic feel. There were less modern skyscrapers and the streets/housing looked slightly more traditional. Greenery was more common, as the road medians and other areas were brimming with luscious tropical vegetation. And in contrast with the separation seen in Jakarta, packed housing districts seemed to be situated right next to starkly contrasting modern buildings such as malls. There was an additional highly positive difference: many, many less advertisements for the 2018 Asian Games.

After decompressing in our hotel for a bit, we headed out into the city to visit Pura Agung Jagat Karana, an open-air Hindu temple. However, we initially had trouble in finding the temple's exact location after our GrabCar dropped us off nearby. Luckily, we ran into some kids playing soccer, who, after shouting "Bule, Bule!", led us to the temple's entrance. Although in modern times Hindu is certainly a minority religion in Surabaya, its architectural style still has significant influence. As we admired the vibrant carvings covering the temple structure, an old Hindu priest kindly informed us about Hindu customs and instructed us in how to wear the long clothes required to enter the inner part of the temple. We had seemingly arrived shortly before a service began, as people slowly filtered into the temple and began sitting on the long parallel mats in front of a towering Hindu shrine. The scene was beautiful as well as eerie: mystical Hindu music clashed with the nearby Muslim call to prayer as twilight fell in the exotic temple.

1. Cats while looking for the Hindu temple. 2. Inner section of Hindu temple. 3. Hindu temple artwork.

After returning to the hotel, we met up with LCDR Gobert (Officer of Maritime Affairs within Indonesia, USN) for a ramen/kimchi dinner at the nearby mall and discussed the itinerary for our visit to Akademi Angkatan Laut (the Indonesian Naval Academy) the next morning.

Following a good night's sleep (interrupted briefly by the 0400 call to prayer), we donned our summer whites and traveled across Surabaya to the Indonesian Naval Academy. The campus was beautiful: green trees and orderly buildings dotted the avenues alongside the Surabaya harbor coastline. When we came to our first stop outside the main, very official-looking building, the Indonesian officers were clearly prepared for our arrival. With cameras and photographers in the background, "Teddy" (the Indonesian naval officer in charge of our visit) led us into the building to greet the Superintendent and an assortment of other high-ranking officers. It was a formal affair as LCDR Gobert signed the academy's guest book and each of us shook the Superintendent's hand. As we were taking the first of many pictures, we realized that our visit was certainly significant and even ground-breaking in establishing a familiar relationship between the Indonesian and US Naval Academies and promoting better ties between the Indonesian and US Navies. This attitude was clearly present in the Indonesian officers and cadets: they were on the top of their game in the presentation of their academy. After this formal greeting, we were led to a fancy-looking meeting room where we were able to meet face-to-face with five cadets (three men and two women) and exchange questions and information about our respective academies. Although the Indonesian officers and cadets take military decorum very seriously, the atmosphere soon became somewhat relaxed as we could relate with the cadets on many different things. Finally, we were taken on a tour of some of the academy's facilities including the bridge simulator, engine room, a dormitory room, and the outdoor swimming pool complete with a swimming obstacle course. The bridge simulator was highly sophisticated when compared to the one at USNA. The cadets' dormitories seem similar to ours, although their rooms certainly have more floor space.

After a slow afternoon exploring nearby parts of Surabaya, we met up with the Indonesian cadets for dinner at a super nice restaurant with literally hundreds of possible menu items. This provided us with the opportunity to interact with the cadets in a more informal manner, although they were still in impeccable uniforms due to academy regulations.

(From top left, clockwise) 1. Outside the bridge simulator. 2. Inside the bridge simulator. 3. Engine room. 4. Hanging out at the pool. 5. Prof B and Teddy with a gift from USNA. 6. Dinner with the cadets.

The entire day was an extremely rewarding experience in getting to know the cadets and understand both their way of life and the Indonesian Navy. A few initial observations: their curriculum seems to have an even greater emphasis on naval skills and military training than the US Naval Academy. The overwhelming majority of their classes are on navigation, naval engines and machinery, naval electrical engineering, etc. They seem to lack many of the more diversified courses and majors at USNA such as other engineering disciplines and the social sciences. Their experience at their academy is also rigorously defined by their service selection (which is decided before their third year, significantly before USNA's service selection in the middle of our fourth year). They have five main service selection possibilities: operational fleet forces (equivalent to SWO), Marines, engineering corps (ship engines, generators, etc.), electrical engineering, and logistics. Instead of picking for themselves, their service selection is dependent on exam results taken at the end of their second year. Afterwards, the rest of their classes are focused in those specific disciplines.

The Indonesian cadets seem to have a strong sense of fellowship with each other. This is exemplified in simple ways such as their reg. runs being in perfect step and the camaraderie they showed while hanging out together at the dinner. Like USNA, they hail from all of the diverse places in Indonesia, from Sumatra to Papua. Yet they still form strong bonds with one another. Also like USNA, men and women seem very equal at their academy, although there is a smaller percentage of women at the Indonesian Naval Academy than at USNA. All of the cadets seemed overwhelmingly interested in the USA and very enthusiastic about possible cadet exchanges.

I'm sure I'm missing a lot of takeaways from this experience. It's a lot to digest and can't be fully expressed in a simple blog entry. Overall, although the Indonesian cadets have many differences with respect to practical military matters and their focus on military decorum, I believed we share a lot with them in respect to humor, an enthusiastic attitude, openness, and a sense of commitment to the Navy.

Special thanks to Professor Barrett and LCDR Gobert for setting up this visit! Next stop: Sumatra!

P.S. Since this was a pretty interesting experience, if any of the other mids have unique takeaways, write them in the comments so we can all see them!