Commanding the Fleet:
An Interview with a Naval Officer
Written by Istillian
For the observant eye, there is a rejuvenation going on in the Europeian Republican Navy (ERN) of late, made clear with the number of commanders available to run operations, and sailors putting out reports in the Octagon like there’s no tomorrow. Our new enlistees are being actively trained to the point of leading their own operations, and a few retreads have also resurfaced back on deck to learn new skills and techniques. Given that the ERN and the theme of Europeian independence saw some focus and exploration in the recent presidential election, notably on EBC Radio during the live debates, our sailors' specialised military talents, and particularly now that command of the ERN is under the ultimate authority of our President, it felt prudent to interview one of our current, and most experienced, naval commanders.
This interview is with someone who has led our Navy as Grand Admiral, trained ample sailors on the intricacies of warfare, dominated in the Europeian executive sphere, as well as having led at a high level in other regions, and importantly, someone who has the diversity in experience to reflect critically on the ideology of an independent political region like our own. They have captivated citizens greatly in their time, when involved in military operations, or even when experiencing the small or subtle nuances of leadership in the domestic government, always helping and assisting beyond the call of duty.
"Hai I'm Dakota Vytherov, and I'm currently a Commodore in the ERN." Dakota has been involved in many different regions in the past, but to go back to her roots, she first talked about the earliest military organisation she signed up for. “My first military organization was from a now three year defunct region called The Order of the Sword" and when asked what inspired her to join, she added "I honestly can't remember ... I used to play NS in middle school but never joined off-site and so when I rejoined NS later in high school, wanted to make sure I had reason to stick around off-site and wanted to be a part of something.”
In the past twelve months there have been a few steady commanders leading operations in the ERN, yet some difficulty in getting new sailors trained to steer the fleet by themselves, so Dakota explored how long it took her to understand the fundamentals of leading operations herself after finding her first military organisation. “I didn't take the jump into leading my own tag raids until after a year on NS, and I only really started feeling comfortable with that around early 2019. I still don't feel like I'm really good at triggering, but I like to think I made up for that with triggering a lot of raids in 2018/2019. With occupations I attempted to lead one December 21st, 2018."
"The next occupation I lead [sic] was RaiderCon 2019 .. [and] I think I finally got more comfortable with occupations with my second successful op -- Cretanja Queendom, which was December 21st, 2019." The Cretanja Queendom hold was a significant victory as part of a joint operation led by Dakota, proving a growing level of comfort in military leadership for her.
With this level of experience in leading operations being quite some time after joining her first organisation, Dakota was asked how quickly she believed it would take someone joining the ERN to lead their own operation. “We've modernized a lot since my term as Grand Admiral now two years ago ... When I joined the ERN in January of 2018, the trigger (raid leader) was expected to also point (person who takes the delegacy on targets) on their tags and do the Move + Endorse type of raid from various jumppoints. Spyglass (the most common way people set their triggers now) wasn't utilized then. I remember having to ask specific permission to even be allowed to use it. This type of raid isn't exactly the most practical in 2020. The ERN has changed and improved in a lot of ways.” From a slightly more rigid process in days gone by with limited accessibility to different tools, to a now more intuitive and hands on approach to training, the future now seems a lot brighter for sailors starting out. Yet Dakota did add that she would like to see "more hold/occupation focus and training" from our Navy.
It seemed worthwhile to query Dakota on her long standing involvement with The Black Hawks (TBH), noting the large scale events she had led, and given the comparison in styles of leadership and approach to operations often being a topical point in the ERN mess hall. “The Black Hawks are a fifteen year old raiding organization founded by the now Delete-On-Sight player Halcones. TBH is lead [sic] by a group of total dorks called the Council of Hawks, which currently consist of four players -- Jakker, Lady Dominator, Aquila, and I, where the four of us oversee the three corps -- Blade, Terra, and Talon. Jakker and Lady Dominator are the Co-Overseers of Talon (sleepers), Aquila leads Blade Corps (tags), and I’m the Overseer of Terra Corps (records, community events, & FA). I've been in TBH for two and a half years and they've been my rock on NS." Earning a place on the Council of Hawks is not a trivial matter. "I joined TBH in January of 2018, and am currently a member of Council of Hawks at the rank of Colonel. I was Overseer of Blade Corps ... from October 13th, 2019 to July 17th of this year, but I recently moved over to Terra Corps."
And yet, this didn’t seem to explain the initial motivation to join the ERN, which Dakota then commented on. “[T]he first org that I mentioned earlier was The Order of the Sword and it was an extremely noob org that had some icky leaders such as someone who's currently admin banned from Europeia. Because of this person, I stepped away from raiding for a bit ... [but] in December 2017 I had an abundance of free time, I started looking back into raiding. Naturally re-joined some of the orgs of regions I was already in, like the military of the Kingdom of Great Britain (KGB). KGB wasn't hitting targets though, and I was getting tired of staying up on majors for one target that would always get missed ... so I started looking outward at regions I wasn't in -- like The Black Hawks and the ERN. I joined both of these in January of 2018. TBH has been a constant home for me, and despite leaving Euro a few times, I always find myself rejoining Euro for the ERN. They were the first orgs I can say I actually had fun in.”
With NationStates warfare a common point of discussion in greater inter regional Game Play (GP) debates, and with Europeia taking a stance as an independent region, Dakota was asked about her own ideologies and leaning. “I’m a raider, and I don’t think I’ve ever claimed to be an Independent. [It] Would be disingenuous to claim otherwise.” She then continued on the idea of independence. "Being Independent to me means using your org to further help the goals of your government's foreign agenda -- be it helping treaty allies with their raids, promoting Euro on the GP stage, or assisting in a WA (World Assembly) quorum raid." However, Dakota was quick to provide some relief to anyone over-analysing what a NS military does. "I think people understand the basics such as we raided X, Y, or Z, but I think people get caught up on specifics or overthink and that creates barriers. It def[initely] was a barrier for me with triggering."
With the time it took for Dakota to learn how to trigger and run large scale operations in a command role, she also referred to the ongoing support and mentorship she had received during this time. "Jakker has been a mentor to me for over two years now. I used to go to him with near every idea I had before putting it in TBHs War Room. I’ve been on Council now with him for ten months, and I still view Jakker as a mentor." Jakker has been a longstanding friend of the ERN, as well as a mentor to many, and was recently also honoured with the title of Comes by former Grand Admiral Common-Sense Politics.
With this support from an array of organisations interregionally, and with the mentoring from one of NationStates longest standing raiders, Dakota talked about how she set out to try something a little different, and remarkably expanded on a raiding technique not yet tried by our Navy, explaining it as "something I just did with Sakana and Refuge ... We used a tactic that we’ve called “Update Bending”, and we managed to block two of the largest update forces ever recorded according to Roavin" although Dakota did say that "This isn’t a really fond memory for me though because of stopping the lib attempts, [it] was because Sakana and Refuge are friends who mean a lot to me, and I wouldn’t have wanted to spend hours working on this tactic with anybody else."
For anyone not actively involved in the Navy, and for fresh sailors in the ERN, Dakota is often someone who has encouraged people in their motivation for service, and is always willing to help out anyone trying to find their way, and provided some worthwhile advice to new sailors:
"R/D (raiding and defending) can open a lot of doors for you in the wider GP community. You can be creative and come up with new ideas to shake up all of GP. You can be the one leading the big holds. And/or you can just enjoy the friendships you can make in the R/D community, which in my opinion is the best part."
The ERN can truly encourage a unique way to meet new people, advance your career in Europeia, or just to engage in some healthy banter; but it particularly allows for a wider exploration of foreign affairs as well, even if it isn't always intentionally sought. Importantly though, this discussion with Dakota highlights that there is always an element of excitement and camaraderie among sailors on operations, and in the mess hall - and yet, it is also important to understand the political landscape that we operate in, in Europeia particularly, knowing that being an independent region carries a certain message, allowing us to continue our relationships with other regions and organisations; but at the end of the day, being in the ERN is mainly about enjoying yourself, learning something new, and most of all, having fun. Dakota has certainly shown that she exemplifies this message in all that she does, and we as a region are better off for having her experience and leadership in our command.
If naval service interests you, please visit our Office of Naval Recruitment. We would love for you to join us!
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