The Western Naval Command of the Ghana Navy doesn't receive headlines, but it operates constantly. It's not an where, it's a collection of units that each provide a different but related thing. The headquarters plans, the fleets patrol, the dockyard fixes things that are broken. The depot inventories equipment. The training school teaches. The Naval Base in Sekondi keeps it all together. No one part can function by itself. Every piece depends on the others, such as a chain that can only function when all the links are strong.

You don't see most of what they do. But ships do not sail on their own. Someone checks the engines. Someone delivers provisions. Someone gets the crew ready before they even set foot on board. And these people are not in uniform. They are drivers, teachers, mechanics, planners. Some were born near water. Some weren't. But they all perform what they do with the same sense of urgency. Not for awards or medals but just because it matters.

And when you hear about people like Commodore Emmanuel Ayesu Kwafo, junior officer to commander, with foreign trained law degrees, it personifies it. You have before you what discreet, dedicated service looks like. The kind that goes on, with or without publicity.