Commander lieutenant Agnija: I look forward to the day when we become as unremarkable as men

LRT.lt

Commander lieutenant Agnija Aleknaitė of the Lithuanian Armed Forces Naval Force staff says that being alone at sea leaves you highly constrained, and the mission of the Naval Force is not only defence but also maintaining order.

Aleknaitė has served in the military for 13 years. Her path to the armed forces was not straightforward. After finishing school, she studied navigation at the Maritime Institute of Klaipėda University, where, as she recalls, first-year instructors introduced junior officer leadership training to students. She says a classmate who had completed conscription encouraged her to join the training.

“A few years later, after I finished my studies, the same instructor said to me: ‘Come to the Naval Force, we’re short of people. Want to give it a try?’ I said sure, I’ll come and try. I tried and stayed,” Aleknaitė said.

She stresses that society needs to understand that the military is not solely a male duty to defend the homeland and that homeland defence is not just about taking up a weapon and running through the forest. There are many different roles that can be filled.

The commander lieutenant says she looks forward to the day when seeing women in large numbers wearing military uniforms becomes unremarkable.

“How would you explain to someone what the Naval Force is?”

“We are the force that has ships, units that can defend and protect our sea, because Lithuania is not just a patch of land. We also have a large stretch of sea with an exclusive economic zone, exclusive rights and all the resources within it, as well as territorial waters where the same laws and order apply as on land. We are the units that can operate there and ensure order is maintained. We are different. On land, a car drives; at sea, ships sail. We are the unit that knows how to work at sea. The Air Force operates in the air, and we specialise in a slightly different environment, different natural conditions, where we move differently than people are used to. Yes, humans are land-dwellers, but we are the ones who can operate at sea.

But this is only part of our Naval Force. We also have units that operate on land. We have the Sea and Coast Surveillance Service, which monitors the same sea from the shore. We have the Fusilier Battalion, which prepares to defend both the coast and the land. They can operate in water but focus closer to the shore. We have the Logistics Service, which provides us with logistical support. Without logistics, we would go unfed, shoeless, without weapons or anything else. They are one of the supporting units that allow us to do our work: they purchase and provide us with resources, plan and equip us. We also have smaller units. The Training Centre helps us, trains us and organises courses for us. We have the Sea Rescue Coordination Centre, because one of the missions assigned to us by Lithuania is rescue and search operations. We must carry out tasks at sea, in the lagoons and ports even in peacetime. We have one small unit that is on duty every day, every minute, ready to coordinate if such work is needed.

We do a very wide range of things, but the Naval Force is probably most associated with ships and the sea. We are the ones who can work both on land and at sea. It’s about 50-50.”