War Stories, Episode 7: A Navy Officer responding to humanitarian crises in the Mediterranean, 2014-2015.

In the seventh edition of the King’s College London War Studies War Stories podcast miniseries, hosted by King’s alumni Rupert Lane and Nick Denning (BA War Studies, 2002–2005), we take to the seas with Andrew Young (BA War Studies 2004-2007, current War Studies PhD candidate).

Andrew was a young naval officer, deployed as a specialist educator, whose ships were re-routed to deal with humanitarian crises in Libya in 2014 and 2015. In 2014, HMS Enterprise, a survey vessel, was on patrol in the Mediterranean when it was sent to evacuate over 100 personnel from Tripoli, and again Andrew found himself as the resident 'expert' when HMS Bulwark was sent to rescue over 4,000 migrants from the sea off Libya, in 2015. The ships and their crews had to rapidly adapt to situations that they were not set-up to do - a superb example of military ‘adapt and overcome’.

Expect to learn:

- What it means to live aboard ship, in cramped conditions

- How to adapt in rapid time to a new mission

- How leadership, training and individual initiative drive success or failure under pressure.