You are listening to the War in the Rocks podcast on strategy, defense and foreign affairs.

My name is Ryan Evans. I'm the founder of War in the Rocks.

This coming week, leaders from around the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will convene on Washington, D.C. for NATO's annual summit.

A few weeks ago, I recorded a conversation with Admiral Rob Bauer of the Royal Netherlands Navy.

He is the chair of NATO's military committee, in that capacity he is the senior most military officer in NATO.

Enjoy the conversation.

So why did you join the Navy?

Not entirely by accident but I didn't know what I wanted to do when I was

17 one year before I finished high school and so I started to think about it and one of

the studies I was looking to was economics and the other one was a technical study and then a friend of my

father's my father came for a weekend and he said why don't you go to the Navy and I said

oh I don't know sir so he gave me a folder and I said, oh, I don't know, sir.

So he gave me a folder and I applied for all the tests that you had to do, physical tests and

psychological tests and it was like a whole program three, four times, You had to go there for two days throughout the year.

And I didn't, still didn't know.

So I basically passed all the tests and I thought,

you know, two of the three will say,

you're not welcome and I'm gonna to do the third one and then all three in the end said you're welcome and then I thought

Okay, now I have to make a decision and the reason why I went to the Navy was because the studies was not just studies, it was three-year studies and then one and a half years of practical internship and then study again. And I thought that's something I like more than just

studying for six years. And this was right at the beginning of the 80s is that right?

Yes 81 I joined the Navy and then I became an officer in 84 did this practical period and then another two years of studies.

What did they have you doing it first? Were you on a ship or what were you doing?

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