Page 50 - JSOM Fall 2018

drills. Operation preparedness was partly done onboard the no activities except workout or training as the only outlet for
vessel (e.g., by fire drills or battle drills), which helped partici­ feelings of stress from having too little to do. Not being able
pants to feel safe and be prepared to act, even the dark. to act after months of preparation can be similar to being a
well­trained, skilled soccer player always on the substitutes’
In the period before overseas duty, this model of readiness bench, which leads to frustration. Not being able to act is also
20
may be integrated in knowledge of different theoretical sub­ stressful, and it is important to know how to handle this. The
jects to help prepare boarding element members in a better ability to relax seems to be difficult onboard ship. During the
way. This is in line with other studies that indicated the need operation, the participants were well trained but did not seem
for strategies to better prepare, identify, and treat those who to be psychologically prepared; thus, they did not know how
are exposed to stressors during deployment, in war­like and in to relax. Questions arose whether the everyday fitness training
peace­keeping operations. 33 was an outlet for feelings of stress as part of a coping strategy.

Being assigned for international hostile duty means being pre­ Maslow proposed a hierarchy of needs in 1943, which still
36
pared for all possible events the duty may involve. The tasks is of great immediate interest because, in our study, the re­
for HMS Carlskrona were partly to deter and disrupt piracy spondents had trouble sleeping and thus experienced a lack of
in the Gulf of Aden. For the participants to act and do what recovery; sleep is one of the basic physiological needs.
they had been trained for was demonstrated by the personnel
knowing how to handle their military profession, but being The results of this study can be used to improve preparations
prepared for the nonaction or the drudgery onboard the ship before international hostile duty, informing personnel of what
was more difficult. to expect, thereby benefitting the boarding element and crews
on the merchant fleet. Research is needed to verify if the par­
Different categories emerged in the results, indicating that the ticipants’ everyday fitness training during the 4­month duty
participants must be able to adapt to the naval environment overseas was part of a coping strategy; interviews with the
and to real situations. They need to be well prepared to act, if respondents can be used to identify that.
necessary. Choosing a crew for different kinds of duty at sea
involves a selection process and perhaps this has to be done in We used conventional content analysis in this study, 28,29 an
a way that the naval environment is tested by the crew before accepted and commonly used qualitative method in which
participation. This seems to be important; Bandahur stated quotations are used to increase the trustworthiness of the re­
10
that, most likely, piracy will be increasingly well organized and search. 26,28,37 An important strength of this study was that it
more violent in the future. The question of how the boarding was accomplished during international naval hostile duty; it
element members can be better prepared before participating may open the door to better individual coping strategies for
in national or international duty at sea still remains. naval servicemembers serving overseas for a long period.

The findings of our study support previous research showing This study also has some limitations. To make transferabil­
that people in maritime environments are exposed to stress for ity possible, we used VAS to estimate effects, because it is a
various reasons (e.g., lack of integrity or sleeping problems). validated instrument, but the number of notes was insuffi­
2,3
27
No balance was found between working and resting on the cient to make any firm conclusions. The individual notes of
ship. Being in the naval environment for 4 months implies one events were generally too superficial, and it was difficult to get
is living with other people in a confined area with little or no a deeper meaning or understanding of actions taken onboard.
room for solitary hours; it can be interpreted as “voluntary With the current method, it was difficult to determine if cop­
captivity,” during which one lives 1 hour at a time or being ing strategies were used. Despite these limitations, the study
“goal oriented.” The threat levels and hazardous situations provides important information.
vary, and it is important that each person onboard is prepared
for and ready to master sometimes dangerous situations. They Conclusion
have to learn to assess risks and act on these assessments. If
they are prepared, then the chances of survival increase. In Experiences of everyday life onboard ship can be described
their study, Mustillo et al. found that servicemembers in the as the ability to cope with various situations, sometimes with
34
Navy had higher rates of depression or alcohol abuse; these the risks to one’s life. Using coping strategies, individually or
may have been because some Navy personnel served with the in a group, can be one way of dealing with the naval context
Army and received only 3 weeks of training in Army proce­ during long­term duty. This research recommends that oppor­
dures, weapons, survival training, and communications before tunities for coping (e.g., by making studying possible) should
deployment, which left them with a low level of readiness. be created for the armed forces as well as the merchant fleet
Research indicates that servicemembers may benefit from psy­ while on long­term operations.
chological skills training with specific coping strategies instead
of only doing stressful training exercises and/or combat. 35 Acknowledgments
We thank the Swedish naval specialized boarding element
In our study, the participants either adapted to the sleeping members who took the time to participate in this study and
conditions and managed to handle the environment on the share their experiences. This study would not have been pos­
ship, in particular the drudgery, or not. Some of them seemed sible without them.
to find comfort in the routines, such as daily cleaning, meet­
ings, or meal times. Life onboard can be understimulating; Disclosures
stress can be constantly present as both threat levels and levels This study has been carried out as an integrated part of the
of readiness change. Many days passed with no friendly ap­ authors’ regular work. No other funding was involved in pre­
proaches, no special duty except for the ordinary routines, and paring the manuscript.

48 | JSOM Volume 18, Edition 3 / Fall 2018