Navy foiled an attempted piracy event in the Arabian Sea yesterday:
The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise and guided missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf, which were conducting operations in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, received a distress call at about 10:30 a.m. local time Thursday from the Falcon Trader II, a Philippine-flagged merchant vessel. It reported that suspected pirates in a small skiff were attempting to board the vessel.
A subsequent message from the Falcon Trader II reported that pirates had boarded, and that the crew had secured themselves in a safe room, from which they maintained control over the ship’s steering and propulsion.
The Enterprise and Leyte Gulf each deployed a helicopter to investigate. At the scene, the Enterprise’s HS-11 helicopter fired warning shots to dissuade the pirates from continuing their attack. Two pirates were witnessed jumping off the bow of the Falcon Trader II into their skiff and fled, pursued by the HS-11.
The pirates shot small weapons fire at the helicopter as the skiff attempted to rendezvous with a larger vessel suspected to be its “mother ship.” The Navy helicopter and its crew were unharmed, and returned to the hijack scene to continue reconnaissance.
I’m not a huge fan of warning shots myself – plunging fire into the sea is an inefficient use of scarce resources. But it seems to me that, once the pirates had shot back, the rules of engagement ought to have allowed fire for effect.
There are two ways to neutralize a threat: Withdrawing an armed helicopter to a safe distance is not the Navy way.
Well, not in the old Navy anyway.
A missed opportunity to burn some pirate ass with a reason justifiable even to the PC Nazis…
Sad.
What the head of your comrade-in-piracy explode like a melon works as a warning, that´s a warning shot I can stand for.
Interfering in somebody else’s internal spat with Tomahawks, while dodging bullets from pirates.
Clearly there are more rules of NON-engagement, than of engagement. If the copters can’t even fire in self-defense, there is no reason for them to even be there.
With SNO having selected helos I am sure that he is 2 yrs away from said future encounter. The GCAL 50 can be quite accurate – and intimidating. Shoot first, ask ROE later, beg off with “message received but garbled”.
Or, as Dick Marcinko would say, go UNODIR. “Unless Otherwise Directed”
Path to jail and to prison. Seeing a lot of marines who took that route. Not wanting to see it.
Marcinko was/is a dirtbag. Ask anybody. I wouldn’t mind so much if he didn’t cheat all the time. Never thought the rules applied to him. Deathly force it can ruin one’s hole day.
I guess it depends on who you talk to. None of the guys I used to know at SpecWar bitched about him.
Frankly, I’d be worried if he didn’t cheat. There’s no such thing as a set piece game when fighting the enemy, and his talent for exploiting weakness is what made him successful. Yes, he pissed people off. Did he care? No. Do I care? Not in the least. I saw him and his people at work. Zero failure rate.
I’m good with that.
when you fought him you had to fight by his rules. it made the whole thing kind of pointless. fake rules for combat don’t actually enhance. anything.
the guy really was a vicious thug with zero redeeming qualities.
we were some of the guys most wanted by them to play but we played mostly fair. not always. we couldn’t hurt a fly usually but we could easily detect them. to be brutally honest, they were predictable and easy. they reached the point where they came by after the exercise to admin strap on explosives to the comm tower and blow it up since they would never try that seal stuff. parachuting into a cold bay etc. there is a lot to be said for FLIR.
Dick is and was a thug of the first water.
In my final job I relieved one. A good one. On the roof in Mogadishu during Blackhawk down. Swam with Bull sharks. Totally completely crazy. Good guy. I shared an office for 12 months with one and an eod guy I worked for. Totally good guy. Hardcore. kind of got the contempt from them. they’d do seal wannabe evaluations and waste a morning watching some sailor pump at the minimum standard. Never once did they come back to the office and talk about a real and true dedicated commando type. Mostly they saw Dick.
It was a privilege to serve with SPECOPS and a pain in the ass to deal with SPECWAR types. Right up there with marines. One can gut marines but SEALS, not so much. Better to just leave them out of the plan. If one really hates them, put them in the plan a lot.
I’m the guy that said I lied, cheated and steeled. I’m Ok with all that.
Sweet Jesus Curtis… that has got to be the most incoherent post…one of the first “water” to be precise… I’ve attempted to decipher around here… well done. Best
PS,Never had any truck or dealings with R. Marcinko…he just impressed me from afar as a self promoting bag of wind…a snake eater in the pejorative sense as we styled such dross as he in the way back who ultimately came to believe his own press clippings…ergo…the antithesis of the ” quiet professional”.
Macinko: “vicious thug with no redeeming qualities”.
Only dealt with him once. Not in the line of duty. That’s what I saw.
Which is why he got, what he got. He probably still thinks he was picked on.
Likely he still doesn’t understand there are lines, which if you step across them, “they” will cut your toes off. And should.
Marcinko: The rare bird who has actually been there, done that in just about every way a frog can, and CANNOT stop talking about it. Maybe we need a real bastard out there taking it to the pirates, UNODIR. It’s gotta work better than what we’re doing.
SE,
Came back to clarify.
An awful lot of people love SEALS and there are some damned good men walking the earth with the trident that we can all be proud of.
Then there are the rest of them.
I see them all. Or used to. They made the message traffic and not in a good way. And they gave direct physical evidence one or more times too often to me personally that they either obeyed the rules too much or were not the men they wanted to appear to be. EOD outclassed them every time we tried to work together.
The naval officer that relieved Dick wrote a book about what he found in that kidnapping thieving little command of a totally out of control degenerate. The chickens came home to roost.
Curtis, Thanks for the clarification. Best
My vote: A little more Dick Marcinko and a little less Barney Fife in the ROE.
Roger that…if we played WW2 by the PC Rulebook, we would all be saying ” Deutschland uber alles” instead of “Home of the Free & the Brave.”
You’d find yourself lying face down and bleeding in your own driveway. Dick had a way of preying on the helpless and innocent. Thought it was all a game played by his rules.
Or my favorite: “Say again, you’re coming in stupid.”
A global force for good… not much else apparently.
I wouldn’t say that. A Force For Good would have sunk the pirates as the common enemies of all humanity.
That’s just plain pathetic and shameful. Every one involved needs to insert a van into their full name and hang their head in shame. When did we turn dutch?
Don’t blame the warriors for the atmosphere created by the pols and brass hats.
My WWII Army vet Dad used to council me: “Son, whenever you’re trying to accomplish anything just remember the first advise I got when I was drafted in 1940: There’s the right way; there’s the wrong way–and then there’s the Army way.” Dad died before he could be proved wrong–apparently there is now a fourth way–the Obama way.
I started out working under Reagans SROE as stated by an admiral who was not memorable but faithful to the precepts of the service. “I don’t want you to suck up the first attack. Fire when you’re convinced” and I got batteries release authority under those SROE. Took days for my shoes to fit again after that announcement.
This pirate coddling is bad for business and it’s probably creating another generation of fraidy cats who will not risk all or put it to the test. Babes in the wood and so they’ll remain all their adult lives because this is what they were taught was correct naval behavior.
Not impressed. Really ashamed. Pirates caught in the act.
I am sure of 2 things: 1) the helo crew was ready, willing and able to open fire; and 2) it was the higher-ups (probably political) that refused to cry ‘havoc.’
Those 60s with Hellfires and GAU-17s or -16s are the perfect platform to deal with those pirate boats.
Gentlemen, I’m shocked! SHOCKED, I say! at the lack of tolerance and acceptance of cultural differences. We should embrace and celebrate that they are showing us the rich diversity of the human condition and cultures.
And, moreover, we should not presume to judged them by our tired and corrupt euro-centric ideals and mores, especially as they are based on patriarchical, oppressive Judeo-Christian beliefs.
CELEBRATE! I say, yes CELEBRATE! And we should invite them to celebrate with us. Maybe a costume party. And borrow a custom from our great neighbor to the south. The pirates could be the pinatas.
Heh… Joe you got a keyboard kill for that one.
Penguin, one each. Fired.soonest.
Dillon M-134 for the mop up. Not a good idea to sit next to the muzzle of one whilst it fires,but when you’re in a HH-1K there’s nowhere else to go. Sounds like a chainsaw on steroids.
Dead men tell no tales. Going to guns…
Heartless SOB’s. Think of the fish endangered by these wild “warning shots”. A nice double tap to the forehead of the offending pirate would send the same message and the environment would be safe. Think Globally, Act Locally….I saw that on a Prius I cut off on I-5.
“Think Globally, Act Locally….I saw that on a Prius I cut off on I-5.”
Nice!
You were in CA and didn’t tell anybody?
This makes me see red! So the H-60 is to be used for helo skinny dippin’ in Lake Tahoe? With Big E in the area, guess Captain Honors is missing out on nothing after all. Oh well, when I was delivering mail route in Temecula today, could hear the reports of artillery fire coming from Camp Pendleton. Good to know the Marines are still allowed to practice the art.
Damn so mad. Kind to the cruel, cruel to the kind.
Well I’ve been to one World’s Fair, a rodeo, and a goat rope and that’s the *stupidest* ROE I’ve ever read about on the internet! (Channeling Slim Pickens here)
Incoming fire is a hostile, not to mention anti-social, act. While the “eye for an eye” retaliation mentioned in the Good Book is intended towards not escalating acts of revenge, I do believe if you open fire using small arms from a small boat on a helicopter armed with machine guns and rockets, The Good Lord will understand if they answer with what is handy.
Anybody telling me I had to ignore threats on my life and wait until hit before firing back would have either my resignation or my utmost contempt. My life is precious. Ammunition is cheap.
– Max
The Navy of Halsey’s big billboards above Tulagi harbor saying KILL JAPS KILL JAPS KILL MORE JAPS seem to be long gone. After all, the other side is always going to be more cooperative with a Navy that is a Global Force For Good, than one whose motto is KILL! KILL! KILL!
Scott,
Halsey’s other statement on the afternoon of 7 Dec 41 – “When this is over, the Japanese language will only be spoken in Hell” – would get a modern Admiral thrown out if he said it about, oh, say, people who fly airplanes into buildings…
They should have sunk not only the skiff but also the mother ship.
This coddling of pirates is sickening. The PC crowd are responsible for the crews and ships that have been held hostage in the pirate havens. As has been noted by men in better administrations, weakness invites aggression.
oddly, I recall, VADM Fargo offering up the entire Mine Hunting Class of plastic useless boat in exchange for armed helos.
The worthless stupid navy kept it’s bone against having anything to do with armed helos for such a long time.
Do we got ‘em now?
How pathetic was the navy leadership in the ’90′s? Are any of that crew left and if there are, can we shoot those dozy dirtbags?
Just what kind of total moron would not arm a helicopter? Only a navy admiral kind of moron.
We did the same thing on PELELIU back in ’08. Two helos- an MH-60S, and a Cobra, but when fired upon, they were told to RTB and cover the merchant. The pirates had fired on the merchant, launching an RPG onto the bridge wing as well. We let the pirates motor south back toward Somalia, even though as we continued on our transit, we could see their radar track turning back north again, awaiting their next victim. We did nothing then, but that was back when the piracy problem was just starting to get some press. I’d like to say I’m surprised that nothing has changed in 3 years, but I’d be lying.
Wait, so we have a compelling reason to shoot at Libyans but not at pirates who kill Americans?
Well, at least our inconsistency is consistent-
I would hate for my kids to be led by this inspirational c-in-c
DAve, The editorial in todays edition of “The Times” (UK, Sat 26th)) describes the CinC as “The onlooker in chief”. Its sad to read that, knowing that the bulk of the ariel hardwear is American.
This approach to piracy sorta reminds me of the approach taken to address crime in New York City about 30-40 years ago. The city therefore was a place where the daytime was scary and at night no one was safe.
Contrast to the late ’90′s when I spent many nights in downtown Manhattan on business. Walking from the office to the hotel was no big deal.
You can’t stop crime without catching and holding (or killing) criminals. New York finally came to that conclusion and elected people who did so.
(I’ll avoid casting aspersions on the political persuasion which catches and jails criminals as opposed to playing catch and release like stopping crime is a Bass Masters fishing tournament. Oh, sorry – I just did.)
George V.
What happened to the “inherent RIGHT and OBLIGATION to self-defense”? That line has been included in every ROE I’ve ever read.
If we’re not going to do the job then get the heck out of the area and let the Russians take over. I’m sure we could fund a couple of their ships for a few months just to clean up the area.
SOMALIA: Russia executed all Somali pirates – spokesman | SomalilandPress.com http://bit.ly/ePcWHT
This drives me nuts. If shot at in open water shoot back.
Lawfare at it’s finest……I think I shall be sick.
I do not give a centigram of rancid dog poo for the feelings of those above, expressing Inside Navy Baseball sentiments.
As an aged private citizen, I just don’t care about that.
When it comes to pirates, three words suffice: Get. A. Rope.
P.s. There would have been four words, but this is a family blog, and all.
JTG,
If you meant get a fucking rope. I’m all with you. Our current leaders are content to call in the JAG/
You really would not believe what I wrote after that. Fortunately I deleted it. As it happens I’m still willing to kill, steal and cheat. I have no virtues that I know of. Practically a seal. did give up smoking though about 8 years ago. so one redeeming feature.
I tried to become a JAG in the mid-late 90′s, but, well, stupid peace-dividend. Think I maybe could have done some good.
No JAG ever did any good that I know of.