With an enthusiastic tone of voice and lively body language, Watson talks about his profession as a frogman. To illustrate his stories, he jumps from the chair to show me a movement with his body. Watson used to be an army officer. Back then in his previous unit, they had visitors from the Danish Frogman Corps.1 “When I watched them swimming, and the way they surfaced from the water, I can tell you, that was the moment for me. I told myself, yes! I have to apply to become one of them” (interview Watson, August 2019). His fascination with the frogmen's techniques led him toward a new career path.
Frogmen train to be experts in aquatic environments. They are the best in their special field of warfare—underwater operations, swimming and diving. In this article, I discuss the operators’ interactions with water, exploring it as a defining feature of their workplace environment. So far, few anthropologists have published work on special operations forces (SOF) researched from within (see e.g., Clark 2015; Danielsen 2018; Haugegaard 2023; Mayland et al. 2017; Samimian-Darash 2013; Simons 1997, 1998; Turnley et al. 2018). This article thus offers a rare insight into the core training of SOF. Successful special operations use small forces to defeat a much larger opponent, through six principles—“simplicity, security, repetition, surprise, speed, and purpose” (McRaven 1996: 7–8). One of the main strengths of naval special warfare operators is their ability to work under water, thereby surprising their opponents with unforeseen operations at sea or in coastal areas. In the field of anthropology, we need more knowledge on the internal dynamics and training of military forces, especially SOF. These forces are usually working in secret and with limited public attention (see also, e.g., Danielsen 2015). SOF are a specialized military asset for the state. Currently, as an example, Military Assistance constitutes around 50 percent of the task portfolio for Danish SOF (communication with Danish Special Operations Command, fall 2023). The focus on Military Assistance reflects a trend in international security, where SOF are deployed to conduct training with partners, instead of deployment of conventional military forces. It is a global political trend, which results in fewer large-scale military interventions and several smaller, flexible Military Assistance operations executed by SOF. These forces can work independently in high-risk environments, which is a reason why they are an attractive solution to political decision makers. This project studies an example of this trend, based on anthropological fieldwork among SOF.
My research project is the first in anthropology to follow a naval special warfare unit into a military assistance operation. Special warfare consists of “military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, trained, and equipped forces using distinct techniques and modes of employment” (NATO 2019: 1). The training sessions I studied are defined by NATO as “Military Assistance” (MA), that is: “a broad category of measures and activities conducted by SOF that support, enable, and influence critical friendly assets through training, advising, mentoring, partnering, or the conduct of combined and other operations. MA operations are often executed to increase the level of technical abilities and proficiencies of a partner to help them achieve a certain goal” (NATO 2019: 7).
Another concept for MA is “Security Force Assistance” (SFA), mostly used in the US security environment. SFA is focused on “organizing, training, equipping, rebuilding and assisting host nation security forces to address challenges in their operating environment” (Schultz 2013: 55). SOF are seen as the most capable of executing these types of missions: “because they are organized, trained and equipped to conduct small-unit operations against irregular enemies and possess both regionally focused language and cultural skills” (ibid.).
The capacity building of Ghana Navy SBS is MA from one state (Denmark) to another (Ghana). The naval special warfare operators constitute one element of state power as professional practitioners of legally authorized force. Through an understanding of the “frightening moments” (Robben and Nordstrom 1995: 17) during underwater training, the article focuses on how the Frogman Corps and the Ghana Navy Special Boat Squadron (Ghana Navy SBS) operators prepare themselves for naval special warfare operations. The article asks a principal research question: How do operators learn to control their emotions when working in aquatic environments? Indeed, to master naval special warfare is to be able to overcome the unpleasant emotions of uncertainty, fear and hardship. Based on unique access to military training sites, the article seeks, in this manner, to understand how soldiers learn to excel during challenging moments of naval special warfare. Field observations from Ghana show how trainees control fear in order to be able to conduct high-risk “edgework” (Lyng 2005a). The article scrutinizes the harsh moments in which the instructors push the trainees to their physical and mental limits and beyond—resulting in a familiarization with fear and pain. In this process, the soldiers’ bodies “become honed and become weapons, and they also gain control over their instinctive, reflexive physical and emotional responses” (Samimian-Darash 2013: 49). Through hardship and repetition, they cultivate the zone of danger and learn to control situations of uncertainty. By cultivating a mental “controllability” competence (Rachman 1978), they learn how to balance on the edge of what is physically and psychologically possible. The soldiers control their emotions in order to be able to act in switchable surroundings. They explore “the limits of human cognition and capacity” (Lyng 2005b). The intensity of these minutes under water is a test, where edgework as internalized bodily techniques provide the ability of staying calm when facing unpredictability (cf. Lyng 2005a).
During training, the trainees transform their bodily habitus (Bourdieu 1992), as well as their mental responses. Thus, the “water habituation” is one element in a demanding selection and socialization process to the profession as naval special warfare operator—a process conceptualized by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann as “secondary socialization” (Berger and Luckmann 1991: 149–193). When trainees learn to reprogram their emotional responses to crises, they undergo a transformation to operators. The theoretical concepts of edgework (Lyng 2005a) and secondary socialization (Berger and Luckmann 1991) are key concepts providing analytical depth to the field study observations. Thus, the article contributes to the study of edgework and particularly “workplace edgework” (Milovanovic 2005) as it focuses on naval special warfare as the “mastering” of extreme experiences (cf. Jackson 2002).
Structure of the Article
Building on field study observations and qualitative interviews with Danish and Ghanaian instructors and team leaders, the article discusses “water habituation” as a component of professional edgework at sea. The article is divided into four sections. First, this introduction presents the main findings from fieldwork and analysis and a short introduction to the methodology used. In addition, the context for the training is presented with a brief historical summary of the two units involved in the MA project in Ghana. The second section unfolds an empirical case example from the “water habituation” training—including an analysis of how the instructors prevent development of trauma when conducting high-risk underwater work—building on Michael Jackson's (2002) concepts of violence and trauma. The third section of the article discusses how trainees are shaped to become operators, conceptualized as “secondary socialization” by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann (1991). Finally, the last section analyzes the water habituation training as “edgework,” a concept developed by Stephen Lyng (Lyng 2005a). The argument is that an important component of conducting edgework is the familiarization with pain and the domestication of fear. The analysis is inspired by concepts of fear (Green 1994) and “controllability” (Rachman 1978) and is followed by a conclusion.
Methodology and Context: Partners United against Piracy
In 2020 and 2021, I observed the Ghana Navy Special Boat Squadron being trained by the Danish Frogman Corps in a bilateral agreement between Ghana Navy and the Danish Defense. I conducted field studies for my PhD research, in several shorter periods of participant observation of preparatory and training events in Nigeria (2020),2 Denmark (2019, 2020, and 2021), and Ghana (2020, 2021).3 The training events in Ghana were two periods of 14 days. In total, I conducted seven months of fieldwork. Participant observation of training events included sailing and driving with instructors to and from the training sites and observing lectures and conversing with trainees and instructors during breaks, waiting time, and meals. In Ghana, I was introduced as a researcher from the Royal Danish Defence College (where I have worked since 2012) and wore military uniform. By virtue of the uniform, my physical appearance looked quite similar to that of the instructors, despite my role as a researcher.
Being a female researcher among male operators sparked curiosity, but after a few days, most trainees ceased to find anything special in my being at their site.4 I conducted qualitative interviews with eight instructors and three Ghana Navy SBS team leaders. In addition, I conducted follow-up interviews with two instructors, a Ghanaian team leader and a diving specialist. In this article, the “voices” are primarily those of instructors from the Frogman Corps. Due to time pressure during training days, it was not possible to conduct interviews with trainees. In addition, instructors and trainees were accommodated in different locations. All names are anonymized, and details about the instructors’ and trainees’ backgrounds and numbers of participants have been restricted. The restrictions respect military operational security and protect the anonymity of the individuals. Even though these measures seem to violate the anthropological quest for context, this was a condition the Frogman Corps imposed for allowing me to follow their MA efforts.
In the text, interview quotes and Danish or Norwegian sources are my own translation. In the following section, I will give a short introduction to the two units involved in the MA efforts: the Danish Frogman Corps and the Ghana Navy Special Boat Squadron.
The Danish Special Operations Maritime Task Group: The Frogman Corps
The Danish Frogman Corps was founded in 1957. In the period after World War II, the Danish Navy was rebuilding its losses from the war and reorienting its capacities to meet the demands of current warfare. With inspiration from the British Special Operations Executive (UK Special Forces in the period 1940–1946), the first initiative in Denmark was a pilot project in 1951 with only five staff (Volke and Nørby 2016: 4). In June 1957, after course training in Norway and the United States, the first instructors were ready to receive the first batch of trainees (Hansen 2017: 43–44). The unit was named the “Danish Navy Frogman Corps,” and the corps was established as an independent unit in 1970, under the command of Navy Operational Command Denmark (Møller 2017: 340–341). In the first years of the existence of the Frogman Corps, its main tasks were diving, participation in NATO exercises, and training Danish conventional units to combat foreign SOF (Volke and Nørby 2016). Later, from 1989 until today, the main focus for the Frogman Corps has been peacetime support to the Danish police, boarding training for counter-piracy operations and MA through the deployment of task groups to Afghanistan and Iraq (Møller 2017: 354–360). In addition, the Frogman Corps has been deployed recently in 2021–2022 to a deterrence operation with the Danish Navy frigate Esbern Snare to the Gulf of Guinea.
The Ghana Navy Special Boat Squadron
The history of the Ghana Navy is closely linked to Ghana's independence from colonial powers. Ghana gained independence in 1957. In 1959, the Ghana Navy was established, following a decision in Parliament (Yakubu et al. 2019: xix). The Ghana Navy expanded, and a transformation took place after 2007, where offshore oil was found. The oil find increased the importance of the maritime domain, and the need for a modernization of the Ghana Navy (ibid.: 84).
In 2012, the Navy established the Ghana Naval Training Command, bringing all naval training institutions under a unified command (ibid.: 86–97). As part of these modernization efforts, and due to an increased piracy threat in the Gulf of Guinea, the Navy established the Ghana Navy Special Boat Squadron in 2016. In the first years, most of the training of the new unit took place in Nigeria with the Nigeria Navy SBS unit (interview Wilfred, 2020). The following statement from the Ghana Navy explains the motivation for the establishment of a SBS unit: “Contemporary maritime security threats such as terrorism, piracy, armed robbery at sea, sabotage activities on maritime infrastructure among others, have necessitated the need to have an elite, well-trained, well-equipped and a robust force capable of conducting all kinds of specialised operations at sea” (Ghana Navy 2023).
In the Gulf of Guinea, maritime regional centers have been established and multinational exercises run twice a year, “Obangame Express” (a US-led exercise) and “African Grand Nemo” (a French-led exercise). I conducted fieldwork during the “Obangame Express” exercise in Lagos, Nigeria, in March 2020. The engagement of European navies in these exercises has initiated bilateral agreements between states, for example, the partnership between Danish Defence and Ghana Navy on a five-year capacity-building program for the Ghanaian Special Boat Squadron (2022–2026).
In their rather new relationship, the asymmetry is clear: the Danish unit was established in 1957, the Ghanaian unit in 2016. However, as nations, Denmark and Ghana have had diplomatic ties since the 17th century. Today, Ghana and Denmark co-operate in various sectors, including maritime security. In this project, we follow the early stages of training of the Ghana Navy's Special Boat Squadron by the Danish Frogman Corps. The project was established by the two nations, after several encounters over the years in the framework of the multinational naval exercise “Obangame Express.”
Diving into the Surface: How to “Enter the Calm”
In the following, I will describe a training session I observed during fieldwork in Ghana. This session sparked my curiosity and was the main reason I started to research the underwater training as “edgework” (Lyng 2005a). By observing the exercises in water, I learned how the sessions shape the development of professional competences preparing soldiers for combat at sea. In the following description, we understand how the initial water exercises are preparing and selecting the operators for the dangerous and difficult work in their future profession.
Field study at Ghana Naval Training Command. Photo: Henrik Palshøj.
Citation: Conflict and Society 10, 1; 10.3167/arcs.2024.100104
After a two-hour morning drive, I arrive at the Ghana Naval Training Command (NAVTRAC). The facilities are located in the eastern part of Ghana, near Sogakope in the Volta region, close to the Volta River. The Ghanaian trainees greet me with smiles, clapping and cheering. After lunch, the temperature is rising. A light breeze is the only movement around, and the water in the nearby river is calm. The Danish instructors are sweating. The schedule says “water habituation”—exercises in water. The first exercise seems simple: to hold your breath under water. The trainees jump into the water, wearing their uniform but without boots. They form a line in the river near a boat bridge, with their heads raised above the water and their hands holding on to the plastic construction at the side of the bridge. I observe the exercise from a different section of the bridge. The Danish instructor, Julian, sounds like a yoga instructor: “Relax your neck, your legs and your feet,” he says with a gentle voice. Listening to his instructions, they try to relax in the water. Julian says: “You have to accept that when you hold your breath, your chest is full of air, and it feels quite uncomfortable—an oppressive sensation in the water. But you have to tell yourself: ‘Oh—it feels nice with all the lovely oxygen in your chest’” (exercise, Ghana, 2021). Julian encourages them to turn pain into positivity. The trainees work in pairs, and they have to keep an eye on each other. The first task is to hold their breath under water for 30 seconds. Julian instructs how to give an “OK” sign with two fingers for being ready, but also for “being OK” when returning to the surface. He instructs with a calm, firm tone of voice and keeps an eye on each trainee. Everybody gives Julian the sign, and he counts down. The first trainees come to the surface when Julian says that the time is up. They give him the “OK” sign. The next group takes their turn. Everybody was able to hold his breath under water. Last week, they started with a period of 15 seconds; today they tried for 30 seconds. They repeat the exercise, and now the task is to hold their breath for 45 seconds.
The Frogman Corps instructors actually do receive inspirational training from a master in yoga and free diving, Stig Åvall Severinsen (interview, Julian, July 2022). This includes using his expert knowledge to teach about breathing (see Joshi 20195; Severinsen 2010). Severinsen is a world record-holder in holding one's breath under water. It “boils down to controlling the mind, and gaining control over the autonomic nervous system that the will usually has no power to control” (Severinsen 2010: 120). Esben, one of the other instructors, explains: “You have to enter into a calm state. You have to focus and be able to control yourself. When you master it mentally, you get the ability to handle crises under water—for instance, to get oxygen from your buddy if your equipment fails. You can overcome these crises because you know you can hold your breath for long. It moves your inner self, mentally” (conversation with Esben, November 2021).
Later, a Ghanaian soldier asked: “Why do we have to do this exercise?” Esben answered that by holding one's breath under water, you can approach an enemy by swimming unseen. It is the controlled body, in water, against the enemy.
Violence and Mental Health: Exercising Control on the Edge
The foregoing fieldwork example illustrates one aspect of frogman training, where operators prepare themselves for high-risk operations at sea. In the following, I will discuss how leaders in the Frogman Corps care for the soldiers’ mental health. This ongoing effort can be studied as an effort to prevent trauma, with reference to Jackson's (2002) theoretical reflections on violence and trauma, which will be discussed in this article. During fieldwork with the Frogman Corps in Denmark, I learned how leaders care for their men, especially in the field of psychological “wellbeing.” Observing the daily routines in a squadron, Monday morning started with a short, psychological “weekend de-briefing.” Each member told his colleagues about his weekend. Topics covered in these talks could be issues with partners, children, illness or any other family matter that could influence their mental ability to work. The purpose of this roundtable talk was a “mental check-in” to work and a way of telling team members about emotions and worries. By sharing their inner thoughts, the team becomes closer and care for each other. In a similar vein, when de-briefing quickly after combat situations, they try to prevent the worst traumas of warfare. These routines in the squadron shows how mental health is important, especially for men who conduct warfare with a high level of mental pressure and uncertainty.
Caring for operators’ mental health is vital, because combat situations can lead to trauma. In his book The Politics of Storytelling: Violence, Transgression and Intersubjectivity (Jackson 2002), Jackson argues that his analysis “is informed by the existential assumption that the difference between traumatic and non-traumatic experience consists in the degree to which individuals are able to ‘manage’ and ‘master’ experiences that have suddenly and overwhelmingly taken them out of their depth—beyond the limits of any previous experience and understanding” (Jackson 2002: 45). The distinction made by Jackson between the traumatic and non-traumatic experience is exactly whether the person—here, the operator—feels in control (of uncertainty) or not. Jackson explores the relationship between violence and storytelling. His focus is “to examine the ways in which stories help people cope with the consequences of violence” (ibid.: 39). Discussing the personal stories of war veterans, Jackson writes about the need to acknowledge the soldiers’ experiences in opposition to the official narratives from states on warfare and combat (ibid.: 49). Soldiers quoted by Jackson told stories about their fears and sense of helplessness during combat situations (ibid.).
Contrary to Jackson's perspective, my focus is to study the perceptions that develop during naval special warfare training. My interest is in understanding how the operators learn to prevent trauma by mastering the extreme experiences. Control is a prerequisite for this effort. Specifically, by controlling their breath, they learn how to survive under water. They cultivate a mindset of winning by meticulous planning, agility and control. As one of my key interlocutors, Watson, explained: “We only fight when we are sure we can win” (interview, May 2020). Initially, I did not fully understand the meaning of his statement. This quote can be interpreted to mean that operators only fight when they are in control. In short, frogmen succeed as silent operators when they overcome fear by a combination of mental control and body techniques. In naval special warfare, control of the body is a prerequisite when conducting violence on behalf of the state. According to Jackson (2005), “violence is not an expression of animal or pathological forces that lie ‘outside’ our humanity; it is an aspect of our humanity itself” (ibid.: 42). Following Jackson, violence is social and intersubjective; it reflects relations between individuals or groups of people, whether orchestrated as threats, violent action or warfare. “Violence is interactional” (Tomforde and Ben-Ari 2021: 4).
In her study of Israeli elite forces, Limor Samimian-Daresh (2013) found that “the ability to control fear is a preliminary condition to proceeding with violence [. . .] body control is thus part of the process of becoming a warrior” (ibid.: 51). Becoming a naval special warfare operator is a demanding process. In the following, I will discuss how this socialization takes place and describe the main components for a successful socialization to become an operator.
Water and Pain: The Socialization of a Naval Special Warfare Operator
I was sitting near the shooting range at NAVTRAC (Ghana Naval Training Command) with the trainees. We were waiting for the instructors to arrive. One trainee was lying down. He was tired after a long night out yesterday with his friends, he explained. The instructors arrived in their cars, doors were slamming, and greetings started in a friendly tone. Peter, one of the instructors, approached the sleepy trainee. He raised his voice: “Why are you lying down? Get up, you have to be ready. Remember, you are a frogman!” This is one example of many where I observed how the instructors “shaped” the trainees to become frogmen. The trainees sign up for a profession that requires mental strength, precision and endurance. The water exercises are elements in a demanding selection process, a process of “secondary socialization” (Berger and Luckmann 1991).
In the water, when trainees learn to familiarize themselves with fear and pain, they are reprogramming their emotional and mental responses. “Secondary socialization is the internalization of institutional or institution-based ‘sub-worlds’” (ibid.: 158). For the newcomers, this socialization process is “the acquisition of role-specific knowledge” (ibid.). The training sessions show how trainees practice radically different responses—to endure pain, to set aside fear. These sessions serve to reprogram, or amend, the emotional responses in the individual. Amending one's responses to bodily pain is not an easy task. Because secondary socialization “always presupposes a preceding process of primary socialization . . . this presents a problem, because the already internalized reality has a tendency to persist” (ibid.: 160). People tend to stick to their primary socialization patterns and responses, especially when put under pressure. As discussed earlier, edgework is the ability to control situations with high risk of death or injury (Lyng 2005b, Lyng 2005c). An instructor in the Frogman Corps explains how trainees should be “guided close to their breaking point, sensitive to each individual and his situation. The aim is for them to become familiar with the area near the point of breaking down. To teach them that, by learning their limit, they will be able to move the point of breaking down” (Svendstorp 2000: 88–89).
According to Julian, the Ghanaian team of instructors were surprised that some trainees could not manage in water (interview, July 2022). A Ghanaian instructor explained: “they were not prepared for this ‘panic test’. Next time, we will prepare them better” (interview Simon, November 2022).
Cultivation of the Danger Zone
The training in water was one element in an ongoing debate between Ghanaian team leaders and Danish instructors about “hardship.” This debate revealed different perceptions in the cross-cultural learning environment.6 How tough should the exercises be? How much sleep does a trainee need after a hard day's work, and how does it affect his ability to learn? The Ghanaians argued that trainees should be deprived of sleep—“in practice, sleep 3 hours per day” (interview Barack, June 2021)—and occasional hard mental and physical pressure should be part of the exercises.7 Deprivation of sleep should push trainees to the edge.
The Danish instructors disagreed. They argued that learning and competence development could not happen if trainees were constantly deprived of sleep (interview Barack, June 2021). The Danish instructors felt there would be enough hardship for the trainees, for example in the water training. The Ghanaians were skeptical. In the past, water training in Ghana Navy SBS forced trainees to “swim very long distances” (interview Wilfred, November 2020). Underwater training is very demanding. A former Danish frogman explains how, during the training, he considered the swimming pool a “torture chamber”:
I knew the procedure too well: dive down, hold my breath until the lungs demanded air. Ignoring that, feeling how the impulse to breathe was growing and became irresistible—fight against it—still fight, as the pain and discomfort increased to a level where it could not become worse. Only in that specific moment, when I knew that soon my muscles would, contrary to my mobilized willpower, expand my ribcage so my lungs would be filled with water—in that moment, I surfaced—and the air I would breathe with a sucking sound felt like getting life itself back. (Svendstorp 2000: 94–95)
Controlling the body not to breathe takes a lot of effort and balances between life and death. The water exercises test their ability to handle stomach cramps and avoid entering a state of panic. To be able to preserve composure and resist the strong urge to breathe. To stay calm—“enter the calm,” finding “the peace in the water”—even when the body is screaming for air. The instructors want to see how a trainee deals with “being” in this zone of stress. Will the trainee, as he tries it repeatedly, become more comfortable with the new experience? The purpose is to move mental limits and test the trainees in hardship similar to the demands of warfare. Only those who can endure stress and wildness will become naval special warfare operators (cf. Danielsen 2011: 8). This is indeed edgework, a guided “near-breaking-down-zone,” which tests whether an individual can control his bodily impulses, stay calm, and ignore pain.
The instructors cultivate this danger zone by taking the trainees through it repeatedly. It is a difficult change. Bourdieu writes about the internalized reality as “habitus” (Bourdieu 1992: 52–65). Habitus consists of “systems of durable, transposable dispositions” (ibid.: 53), which, being a “product of history, produces individual and collective practices” (ibid.: 54). In the field of special warfare, the individual practice of sensing fear, or avoiding physical pain, needs to be controlled and changed, as we have seen, to a new and different “operator-habitus.” This task is difficult, especially because Bourdieu reminds us that “what is ‘learned by the body’ is not something that one has, like knowledge that can be brandished, but something that one is” (ibid.: 63).
Learning new techniques of the body (Mauss 2006) in water shapes the body as a practical instrument for warfare. Berger and Luckmann (1991) argue: “socialization in later life typically begins to take on an affectivity reminiscent of childhood when it seeks radically to transform the subjective reality of the individual” (ibid.: 161). During fieldwork, I found indications of such radical changes in the way interlocutors described their relations to instructors and colleagues with “family” terminology. When hanging out with the operators, some of them would tell me about their favorite instructor in the Frogman Corps. “He became my frogman-father,” one would say. Others underline the feeling of being a close family: “We are all brothers, also internationally” (interview, Watson August 2019). “I am closer with these guys than anyone else,” an instructor said. During an interview, Rex explained: “to some extent, for many of us, the Frogman Corps has a priority over one's role as a father or a husband. I have seen many examples, especially among my colleagues who stay here for long” (interview Rex, October 2021).
In her analysis of a similar unit in Norway, Danielsen writes: “Cohesion in this brotherhood is strong . . . as strong as any biological kinship” (Danielsen 2018:33). Thus, exactly because of the high-risk profession, social relations feel strong and lasting. With the frogman identity comes a strong network of friends and colleagues, who become a new primary group—an extra (better) family or “communitas” (Turner 1969). Berger and Luckmann (1991) argue: “it takes severe biographical shocks to disintegrate the massive reality internalized in early childhood” (ibid.: 162). Likely, the “water habituation” training can be such a shock. It might be the reason why these extreme exercises divide the waters. The hard training and the institutional approach to it have previously resulted in public criticism in Denmark of the Frogman Corps’ teaching methods (see, e.g., Volke and Nørby 2016). The radical changes developing from the hard pressure suggest that becoming a naval special warfare operator requires that the soldier gives everything to the profession. “The individual then commits himself in a comprehensive way to the new reality . . . subjectively the whole of his life” (Berger and Luckmann 1991: 165).
Balancing on the Edge: Longing for the Adrenaline Rush
A helpful concept in the analysis of water habituation training is “edgework” (Lyng 2005a). Edgework is a space for “experiencing intense sensations of self-determination and control” (ibid.: 5). Stephen Lyng is the main figure in sociology writing on “edgework” (see e.g., Lyng 2014; Lyng 2005b, 2005c: Lyng and Matthews 2007). He defines edgework as “a range of activities rooted in a common attraction to exploring the limits of human cognition and capacity in search of new possibilities of being” (Lyng 2005b: 4). The water training has strong mental effects. “A frogman has to be able to hold his breath for at least two minutes under water, and then swim 25 meters under the water, all in one breath,” explains Esben (conversation, November 2021). In a book focusing on training Danish frogmen, a former corps commander explained the following:
Early in the process we start with what we call “water habituation.” The aim is to eliminate the candidates who are not sufficiently familiar with the water. Many people have an invincible aversion against staying in water in the intensive way a frogman needs to. Therefore, we place this initial water habituation at the beginning, where the actual diving education will follow later. Thus, already in the selection course, we have some tests which will reduce the group significantly. (Svendstorp, 2000:55)
The “holding your breath under water” exercise is a key test in the selection process, designed to eliminate some trainees and allow the best to proceed. Can they remain calm and collected during extremely stressful situations? If they can, they have SOF potential. Julian is an experienced instructor in the Frogman Corps. Julian refers to his recent experience (spring 2022), which was part of the selection process in the newly established Ghana Navy SBS Basic Operative Capability Course.8 There, he saw how the applicants managed well in the first week. “They are tough guys, the Ghanaians—they are bone hard. They can walk long distances and carry heavy loads—nobody gives up” (interview Julian, July 2022). However, when the water exercises started, it was a different story. “Through this exercise, we can see [assess] people in a totally different manner. You can be as tough as nobody else, but when you enter the water, it is something completely different. . . . Your hearing sense is limited, your vision is limited, and we take away your urge to breathe. Water is the element that can really provoke panic” (interview Julian, July 2022).
The instructors want to test whether trainees can manage to lose control for just a moment and then regain it. If trainees “panic in water, they are not suitable for a career in a naval SOF unit” (Danielsen 2018: 74). However, even though the underwater work is demanding, it can also be thrilling and fun. For the Danish frogmen, the term “danger” seems not to exist. Instead, operators call dangerous tasks “crazy” or “something wild” with a smile on their face (conversation with four operators, Nigeria 2020; interview Samson, October 2021; conversation William, November 2021). Reflecting on their motivations, I conclude that they really enjoy doing something “wild.” In Denmark, a yearly average of 240 men and women have applied for the entry exam to the Frogman Corps in the last five years (2017–2022, mail communication with Benedict, November 2022). Probably, they seek for professional edgework, the sharp operations, and the adrenaline rush of engaging in a real fight. Lyng (2005b) argues that a vital component of edgework is “the seductive character of the experience itself”—people are engaged in these activities “because ‘it's fun’” (ibid.: 5). Furthermore, the seductive power “derives from the attraction of a clear and vitally consequential boundary line—an ‘edge,’ as it were—which must be negotiated by the individual risk taker . . . managing situations that involve a high risk of death or serious injury” (Lyng and Matthews 2007: 78). Edgework “generates intense emotions that must be managed” (ibid.: 79). If operators do not learn to control their emotions under water, they fail. The operators explain their attraction to edgework in different ways. For instance, Jack, an experienced Danish frogman, said: “you know, all of us, we have a motherfucker hidden inside” (interview Jack and Balder, March 2020). In line with these thoughts, Rex explains: “Military assistance is a cardinal task, and I believe it will be more important in the coming years. However, we are selected because we possess a kind of warrior instinct. I think most frogmen would choose to work where they see the chance of most action, like an adrenaline junkie” (interview Rex, October 2021).
In the Frogman Corps, the operators train for different conflict scenarios, but they prefer to be exposed to operations that involve high risk. In line with their Danish colleagues, Ghana Navy SBS team leaders reflect on high-risk work: “Soon, I hope we can do sharp operations at sea, I really look forward to it” (conversation with Jay, November 2021). Simon added: “I am very happy that we are now training according to real Special Forces standards, like our idols the Navy Seals or the Frogman Corps. It is about mental toughness and courage” (interview Simon, November 2022). Lyng proposes that edgework means to “survive the challenge. By cheating death, they affirm their own existence” (Lyng 2005c: 34). Lyng argues: “the principle goal in these endeavors is to get as close as possible to this line without actually crossing it . . . a deep-seated preoccupation among edge workers with the issue of control” (ibid.: 45, italics in original). However, a retired frogman from the Frogman Corps explains how “this line” is not static: “During the selection course training, they changed my perception of limits. Limits are something you move. You try it so many times: ‘I am not able to do that’. Then, you are able to anyway. You are always able to, anyway. To be able to do something is mental, not physical” (Svendstorp 2000: 235).
The ability to act skillfully, in control, during high-risk situations is accompanied by “focused attention and creative responses to the unfolding circumstances” (Lyng and Matthews 2007: 79). Edgework activities, both in workplaces and during spare time, “may reflect a potential bias in privileging the experience of middle-class white males” (ibid.: 82). However, Ghanaian males also sign up to become operators “on the edge.” The Danish instructors come from diverse backgrounds, but primarily from working-class and middle-class families. There are no female special warfare operators in Nigeria, Ghana, or Denmark (see also Haugegaard 2019). Women do perform professional edgework in these countries as military officers or police. Therefore, conducting edgework is a widespread, universal urge across class and cultural boundaries. The work in the special warfare units is “workplace edgework” (Milovanovic 2005: 55–57). This category includes, for example, police, firefighters, military, ambulance drivers (cf. Milovanovic 2005: 57). Workplace edgework involves controlled behavior, with “more rules of conduct built into the activity” (ibid.: 58). Across these professions, the sense of control varies, and edgework is located in a bodily experience—its “jouissance” or enjoyment (cf. Lacan 1977, in ibid.: 56). Finding pleasure in dangerous edgework activities represents “the meaning of it all” (ibid.).
Being Comfortable with Fear: Training Self-Control
Thus far we have learned how the instructors guide their students through situations under water, which trigger intense feelings of crisis. “Fear, like pain, is overwhelmingly present to the person experiencing it, but it may be barely perceptible to anyone else and almost defies objectification. Subjectively, the mundane experience of chronic fear wears down one's sensibility to it. The routinization of fear undermines one's confidence in interpreting the world” (Green 1994:230). Linda Green argues that experiences of fear challenge our perceptions and interpretations of the environment. Fear relates to anxiety and intimidation and can be paralyzing (Robben and Nordstrom 1995). In a military operation, it is vital that the operators trust their interpretations of what they see and hear. Fear makes the operator hesitate, pause in his activity, which causes a delay. Delay can cause trouble for the whole team. Therefore, fear must be “set aside” in order to continue working. It must become a trained response. The operators learn to work around the problem they face. An expert in survival tactics in the Frogman Corps explains: “To deny your anxiety is just as unrealistic as telling yourself: ‘You will not feel thirsty, because you are not a weak boy.’” Everybody feels thirsty. Everybody is scared. It is important to know, because then you can handle the situation and tell yourself: OK, I am scared, but I have to save myself. What do I do?” (Svendstorp 2000: 146). To hold your breath for two minutes and swim 25 meters under water in one breath does not seem possible; but soon, some trainees are able to do that. By using the correct techniques, nothing seems impossible. In the field of psychology, some researchers propose the concept of “controllability” (Rachman 1978): “If in the face of threats we feel unable to control the probable outcome, we are likely to experience fear. By contrast, if in the same threatening situation we confidently expect that we will be able to control the likelihood of an unfavorable outcome, we are unlikely to experience fear” (ibid.: 7–8). “Controllability” reduces fear significantly. As discussed earlier, Jackson argues that the essential difference between the potentially traumatic experience and the non-traumatic experience is a question of “mastering” the extreme experience (Jackson 2002: 45). Thus, the learning process conducted by the instructors might lead to a “domestication of fear” (conversation with Vigh, October 2022). Through domestication of fear, threats become manageable. Overcoming fear is necessary, “particularly the type of fear that produces a paralysis of action or what edge workers often refer to as ‘brain lock’” (Lyng and Matthews 2007: 79). Lyng and Matthews (2007) suggest that “this is usually achieved by edge workers striving for a Zen-like acceptance of fear, in which one remains confident of one's ability to act skillfully and competently even when shaking with fearful apprehension” (ibid.). Contrary to this observation by Lyng and Matthews on the simultaneity of emotions of fear and control, other researchers suggest that fear comes before violent action, in a sequence. “Emotions are a bodily technique that creates conditions for the actions that ensue” (Samimian-Darash 2013: 51). Whether emotion works in a simultaneity or as interdependent sequences, it is all a matter of control of body and self.
In interviews, several instructors mention the need to stay calm. Esben, Julian and Blake all mention that the goal is to control your breathing and “find the peace in the water.” Finding “peace” is about the trainee staying calm and controlling his body, no matter how stressful the situation. Julian explains this as a simple calculation under water: “if you are relaxed and quiet in your body, you use less oxygen” (interview, July 2022). Throsby (2013) argues, based on her own experience with marathon swimming, that the constant training in water changes the sensory experience of how “being” in water feels: “The swimming body, then, not only undergoes the obvious muscular, cardiovascular and metabolic changes in the course of training, but also changes the way it feels” (Throsby 2013: 18). Working in water is often a barrier in the learning process. Julian has experienced many trainees, both in Denmark and Ghana:
It is interesting . . . many tell me during training. . . , “Ouch, I am not so comfortable in water.” Many trainees really fear the water exercises. . . . Water is the essence of so many elements that they do not like . . . because you have limited vision and hearing and limited air. That is why water is the element so ideal for a special warfare education program. . . . Undoubtedly, we would have double the amount of men passing our entry exam if we did not have the water exercises. A lot of them fall off the exam during these exercises. Water is an element that is very uncomfortable. (interview Julian, July 2022).
Thus, “water habituation” is a selection test—“so we can sort out those who have not got what it takes” (interview Blake, June 2022). Julian mentions his own experience during selection tests in the Frogman Corps: “I really enjoyed being in the water. Nevertheless, I also found my limit during the selection course program. They gave us an exercise. We had to solve different tasks in the water. It was at night—you could not see anything. There were waves and bad weather. I knew I had to swim now, in the sea. It was extremely dark, and you did not know how far you should swim. . . . Moreover, I was alone. Such an exercise is a pure mindset game” (interview Julian, July 2022).
Julian passed the test, but not at the first attempt. The bad weather, the uncertainty over distance and several unknown tasks were challenging. In spring 2022, when the first trainees were trying to obtain admission to the Ghana Navy SBS Course, seven trainees left the selection course during the water exercises (interview Julian, July 2022). All trainees asked to resign themselves. Julian explains (interview, July 2022):
J: I could see the panic in their eyes. We do not want people who panic under water. We have to find people who are calm during extremely difficult and stressful situations. If you can keep calm in a chaotic situation in the water, the probability is much higher that you will act in the same manner above the water.
R: So, in these exercises under water, one should use a different kind of mental strength?
J: Mentally, it's so much worse under water. You feel claustrophobic. . . . It just feels claustrophobic to be under water. . . . It's very terrifying. . . . Down there, you die—simply, that is how it feels: now, I am going to die if I don't swim to the surface.
R: But, these exercises are dangerous?
J: Definitely. It is the most elementary thing for human beings to breathe. If you are not allowed to breathe, things happen in your brain, which you then have to struggle with.
In addition, a factor that could influence the panic under water is cultural perceptions and traditional beliefs. I noticed how Ghanaian interlocutors referred to local, West African perceptions of water. Simon, a Ghanaian team leader, said: “We Ghanaians are land-oriented. Just look at the way our buildings are facing away from the sea” (interview Simon, November 2022). In addition, the perception of the sea is surrounded by myths. “In Ghana, many people believe in sea spirits. Powers from the sea are stronger. In our traditional faith, people believe in an underwater kingdom, with a ruler of the sea and his subordinates” (interview Tom, November 2021). These perceptions are important because they might influence the way some Ghanaian trainees think about working at sea. The traditional beliefs encourage a respectful attitude toward water, since the cultural beliefs associate water with spiritual strength, wealth, and power (Okumah et al. 2020).
To many Ghanaians, the sea is considered a dangerous place, somewhere where supernatural spirits or “powers” decide the destinies of seafarers. These beliefs are widespread in West Africa (for anthropological field research suggesting a link between water, warfighting, and spiritual power in the Niger Delta see Golden 2012: 195, 406). According to Rebecca Golden, who studied Nigerian male warriors for several years, pirates from the Niger Delta seek spiritual protection against dangers, by using charms and clothes in specific colors, when engaging in activities at sea (Golden 2012: 410). These traditional beliefs are worth mentioning, since they indicate that to some Ghanaian trainees, the water in itself is a dangerous element, and therefore it triggers emotions of fear. Whether the seven Ghanaian trainees who left the training were influenced by these perceptions or not, the “water habituation” training is a demanding phase in their education.
Concluding Remarks
In this article I have discussed elements of naval special warfare training in aquatic environments. Soldiers learn to stay calm and control emotions by mastering the extreme experiences (Jackson 2002). By repetition of harsh moments under water, the soldiers learn bodily and mental techniques, which enable them to manage combat situations. Specifically, by controlling their breath, they learn to manage stressful situations. However, control is just one element in their work, where a mindset of winning develops through meticulous planning, agility and control. The trainees practice how to shorten the moments with feelings of fear and learn to ignore bodily pain. It is cultivation of the danger zone, which results in a domestication of fear. The domestication of fear prepare them mentally for war.
When trainees successfully pass the tests, they demonstrate their ability to deal with crises and unpredictability and perform professional edgework in high-risk operations. Thus, “water habituation” training is, for most trainees, a scary environment, where they learn to handle emotions of fear and panic. However, workplace edgework (Milovanovic 2005) consists not only of danger and of unpredictability. In essence, surviving the challenges and cheating death is often full of satisfaction and pleasure. The simultaneity of fear and fun is one reason why these operators are motivated to train hard to improve and refine their skills. SOF are professional edge workers—practitioners of legally authorized force. Thus, violence should not be censored out of academic research; on the contrary, it should be studied in its own right (Jackson 2002, 2005). In this article, I have studied how naval special warfare training prepares Ghanaian trainees for creative thinking and adaptability in war. When both Danish and Ghanaian trainees struggle with water exercises, they are reprogramming their emotional and mental responses to challenges in naval special warfare. In the process, they face high-risk situations, which tie them closely together in a new network of family-like relations, a brotherhood—a “communitas” (Turner 1969).
Instructors reprogram and amend the emotional responses in the individual trainee, and this is a hard challenge. The learning process is intense and demanding, indeed a formation process of “secondary socialization” (Berger and Luckmann 1991). When trainees face fear and pain, they learn to focus on the task and control their emotions in order to survive. The high-risk workplace edgework analyzed here demands a serious effort, where trainees learn to move their mental barriers. Ultimately, naval special warfare can be deadly. The intense training efforts enable the operators to conduct their type of warfare. Naval special warfare is serious, playful edgework, with a high level of risk—and simultaneously a high level of control.
Acknowledgments
Research for this article is supported by funding from the Independent Research Fund Denmark, grant no. 8047-00081B. Thank you to the Danish Special Operations Command who gave me access to conduct field studies in Nigeria, Ghana, and Denmark. I am most grateful to the operators from the Danish Frogman Corps and the Ghana Navy Special Boat Squadron who participated in this study. Without you, there would be no research. I would like to thank my supervisor, Henrik E. Vigh for inspiration, invaluable critique, and support.
I would like to thank my colleagues at the Centre for Global Criminology, University of Copenhagen, especially Alessandro Moretti, Humphrey Asamoah Agyekum, and Trine Mygind Korsby. In addition, at the Department of Anthropology, thanks to Tine Gammeltoft and Ida Vandsøe Madsen and my colleague at the Defence College, Thomas Randrup Pedersen. In addition, I am grateful for constructive feedback from the anonymous reviewers.
Notes
In military (NATO) language, the Frogman Corps is called “The Danish Special Operations Maritime Task Group.” The members of the unit are naval special warfare operators. They use the term “operator” or “frogman” when they speak about themselves. Hence, I use the term “operator” and “frogman” for my interlocutors interchangeably throughout the text. I use the term “trainee” to describe the Ghanaian operators.
In the training event “Obangame Express 2020” in Lagos, Nigeria, the Danish instructors’ contribution was cancelled after one week due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Research for this article is supported by funding from the Independent Research Fund Denmark, grant no. 8047-00081B.
For elaboration of this point, please read my article on female specialists as possible enablers for special operations forces (Haugegaard 2019).
For implementation of yoga practice in the US security forces, see Joshi (2019). Joshi argues that breathing exercises can improve readiness and resilience, especially in high stress professions.
For elaboration of cultural tensions and the significance of culture in coalition warfare and cross-cultural training, see e.g., Christensen et al. (2014); Haugegaard (2023); Luft (2009); Pilon (2009).
The Ghanaian instructors’ initial views on naval special warfare training resembles the counter-terrorism training, where Israeli soldiers said they experienced “a permanent fear” (Samimian-Darash 2013: 52).
A five-year capacity building training of Ghana Navy Special Boat Squadron, developed between the Ghana Navy, the Danish Frogman Corps, and the US Navy.
References
Berger, Peter, and Thomas Luckmann. 1991 (1966). The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. London: Penguin Social Sciences.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1992. The Logic of Practice. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Christensen, Maya Mynster, Rikke Haugegaard, and Poul Martin Linnet. 2014. “War Amongst the People” and the Absent Enemy: Towards a Cultural Paradigm Shift? Research paper. Royal Danish Defence College, Copenhagen.
Clark, Jennifer A. 2015. “Playing Spades in Al Anbar: A Female Social Scientist among Marines and Special Forces.” In: Social Science Goes to War: The Human Terrain System in Iraq and Afghanistan, ed. Montgomery McFate, 141–166. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190216726.001.0001.
Danielsen, Tone. 2011. “Kultur og militær effekt: derfor er ritualer fortsatt viktige” [Culture and Military Effect: The Significance of Rituals]. Norsk Militært Tidsskrift 181 (2): 4–10. Oslo Militære Samfund.
Danielsen, Tone. 2015. Making Warriors in the Global Era: An Anthropological Study of Institutional Apprenticeship: Selection, Training, Education and Everyday Life in the Norwegian Naval Special Operations Commando. PhD dissertation, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Oslo.
Danielsen, Tone. 2018. Making Warriors in a Global Era: An Ethnographic Study of the Norwegian Naval Special Operations Commando. Lanham: Lexington Books.
Ghana Navy. 2023. Special Boat Squadron. https://navyonline.mil.gh/naval-corps/special-boat-squadron (accessed 12 December 2023).
Golden, Rebecca L. 2012. Armed Resistance: Masculinities, Egbesu Spirits and Violence in the Niger Delta of Nigeria. PhD dissertation, Tulane University of Louisiana.
Green, Linda. 1994. “Fear as a Way of Life.” Cultural Anthropology 9 (2): 227–256.
Hansen, Peer Henrik. 2017. Frømænd. Det første dusin. En billedfortælling om dannelsen af Frømandskorpset, Danmarks første eliteenhed [The Frogmen. The first dozen. A picture narration of the formation of the Frogman Corps, the first Danish elite unit]. People's Press.
Haugegaard, Rikke. 2019. “Female Specialists as Operational Enablers for Special Operations Forces?: A Pilot Study among Danish Military Linguists.” Special Operations Journal 5: 72–81. http://doi.org/10.1080/23296151.2019.1581435.
Haugegaard, Rikke. 2023. “Fighting Danger at Sea: The Quest for Speed in Special Operations.” Inter Populum. Journal of Irregular Warfare and Special Operations 1 (1): 69–92. Arizona State University.
Jackson, Michael. 2002. The Politics of Storytelling: Violence, Transgression and Intersubjectivity. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.
Jackson, Michael. 2005. Existential Anthropology: Events, Exigencies and Effects. Methodology and History in Anthropology, volume 11. New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books.
Joshi, Ajit V. 2019. Warrior Pose: Building Readiness through Resilience—Yoga and Meditation. Joint Special Operations University, College of Special Operations. JSOU Press, Occasional paper, February.
Luft, Gal. 2009. Beer, Bacon and Bullets: Culture in Coalition Warfare from Gallipoli to Iraq. Booksurge.com.
Lyng, Stephen. 2005a. The Sociology of Risk-Taking. New York: Routledge.
Lyng, Stephen. 2005b. “Introduction. Edgework and the Risk-Taking Experience.” In: Edgework: The Sociology of Risk-Taking, ed. Stephen Lyng, 3–14. New York: Routledge.
Lyng, Stephen. 2005c. “Sociology at the Edge: Social Theory and Voluntary Risk Taking.” In Edgework: The Sociology of Risk-Taking, ed. Stephen Lyng, 17–49. New York: Routledge.
Lyng, Stephen. 2014. “Action and Edgework: Risk Taking and Reflexivity in Late Modernity.” European Journal of Social Theory 17 (4): 443–460. DOI: 10.1177/1368431013520392.
Lyng, Stephen, and Rick Matthews. 2007. “Risk, Edgework and Masculinities.” In Gendered Risks, eds. Kelly Hannah-Moffat and Pat O'Malley, 75–98. Milton Park: Routledge-Cavendish.
Mauss, Marcel. (1935) 2006. “Techniques of the Body.” Economy and Society 2 (1): 70–88. http://doi.org/10.1080/03085147300000003
Mayland, Karina, Rikke Haugegaard, and Allan Shapiro 2017. “Thinkers at the Cutting Edge: Innovation in the Danish Special Forces.” In Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Special Operations Forces, ed. Gitte Christensen, 88–07. Conference Proceedings, 4(a). Copenhagen: Danish Defence.
McRaven, William H. 1996. Spec Ops—Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare: Theory and Practice. New York: Random House Publishing Group.
Milovanovic, Dragan. 2005. “Edgework: A Subjective and Structural Model of Negotiating Boundaries.” In Edgework: The Sociology of Risk-Taking, ed. Stephen Lyng, 51–72. New York: Routledge.
Møller, Lars R. 2017. Specialoperationer [Special Operations]. Lindhardt og Ringhof.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization. 2019. NATO Standard Allied Joint Doctrine for Special Operations. Edition B, version 1, 2019. Final Draft. North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Allied Joint Publication. NATO Standardization Office. NATO/OTAN.
Okumah, Murat, Ata Senior Yeboah, and Isaac Asante-Wusu. 2020. “Unpacking the Moderating Role of Age and Gender in the Belief–behaviour Link: a Study within the Context of Water Resources Pollution.” Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 63 (14): 2607–2626. https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2020.1742099
Pilon, Juliana Geran, ed. 2009. Cultural Intelligence for Winning the Peace. Washington, DC: The Institute of World Politics Press.
Rachman, Stanley Jack. 1978. Fear and Courage. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman and Company.
Robben, Antonius C. G. M., and Carolyn Nordstrom. 1995. “The Anthropology and Ethnography of Violence and Sociopolitical Conflict.” In Fieldwork under Fire: Contemporary Studies of Violence and Survival, 1–23, eds. Robben, Antonius C. G. M. and Carolyn Nordstrom. Oakland: University of California Press.
Samimian-Darash, Limor. 2013. “Rebuilding the Body Through Violence and Control.” Ethnography 14 (1): 46–63.
Schultz, Richard H. (Jr.). 2013. Security Force Assistance and Security Sector Reform. Joint Special Operations University Report, 13–5. The JSOU Press, Florida.
Severinsen, Stig Åvall. 2010. Breatheology: The Art of Conscious Breathing. Breatheology.com.
Simons, Anna. 1997. The Company They Keep: Life Inside the U.S. Army Special Forces. New York: AVON Books.
Simons, Anna. 1998. “How Ambiguity Results in Excellence: The Role of Hierarchy and Reputation in U.S. Army Special Forces.” Human Organisation 57 (1). Society for Applied Anthropology.
Svendstorp, Sjak 2000. Frømandskorpset [The Frogman Corps]. MeMeMedia.
Throsby, Karen. 2013. “‘If I Go in Like a Cranky Sea Lion, I Come Out Like a Smiling Dolphin’: Marathon Swimming and the Unexpected Pleasures of Being a Body in Water.” Feminist Review, 5–22. DOI: 10.1057/fr.2012.23.
Tomforde, Maren, and Eyal Ben-Ari 2021. “Anthropology of the Military.” In Handbook of Military Sciences, ed. Anders M. Sookermany. Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02866-4_82-1.
Turner, Victor. 1969. “Liminality and Communitas.” In The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure, 94–113, 125–130. Chicago: Aldine Publishing.
Turnley, Jessica Glicken, Kobi Michael, and Eyal Ben-Ari eds. 2018. Special Operations Forces in the 21st Century. Perspectives from the Social Sciences. Cass Military Studies. London: Routledge.
Volke, Finn, and Søren Nørby 2016. “Uddrag af Frømandskorpsets historie 1957–1977” [Excerpts from the History of the Danish Frogman Corps 1957–1977]. Marinehistorisk tidsskrift 49 (2): 3–27. Orlogsmuseets venner/Marinehistorisk selskab.
Yakubu, Issah Adam, Kofi Amponsah Duodo, and Issah Adam. 2019. History of the Ghana Navy: A Case for a Credible Naval Force as an Instrument for National Development. Digibooks Ghana Ltd. Copyright 2019, Ghana Navy.
