Smells like Navy SEALs

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090412/ap_on_re_af/piracy

If you wish to discuss the WCE aspect of this topic take it to the correct forum please.

Cool, I just caught this on the BBC news website about the same time. Congratulations and a happy Easter to those involved.

Well done to whoever pulled it off.

Happened at 7:30PM too? Wow.. daring daylight mission. I hope we hear the details at some point.

hehe Yahoo reporting now that it was the SEALs

hooray!

Yep, great news indeed. Heard about it on the radio while driving home from an easter egg hunt. NPR was reporting that the pirates were taken out by USN snipers, I'm sure Capt. Phillips knew right away that it was time to hit the deck.

Here's the picture of the week.

This is good news.
I heard three pirates were taken out while the fourth was captured while negotiating ??


Wheelsup


(Post # 94)

All Right!

Although I am sorry that 3 pirates had to die (NOT).

Snipers - don't you love them.

I was trained for multiple simultaneous take downs. The way we practiced was each team was given a specific target. The targets randomly moved in a building so we often lost sight of ours. When your shooter had his target he said green and the spotter pressed his button on his box. As each team had or lost their target the lights changed green and red. When all the lights were green the spotters said shoot. With training and practice you can get pretty good at multiple simultaneous take downs. I will be interested if it was a sophisticated take down or a more spontaneous and less controlled volley that eliminated them. I can easily see either way, but the fact that one was still alive makes me think it was a less controlled take down.

Looks like it was about hundred yards shots. Thats pretty easy for a sniper, even from a ship.

I thought snipers would be a great idea but was concerned about the ship bobbing up and down. Those guys are good. Maybe Obama will learn that killing terrorists is the right thing to do...GWB, call your office.

Wish our triumphs could be reported more often. Meaning, the stuff that doesn't make it on cnn.

Congrats to ALL involved.

About damn time.

He is alive because he wasn't there to be shot.

Also is it a coincidence that the naval ship was the USS Bainbridge, named after Commodore Bainbridge who served as a captain during the first Barbary war? William Bainbridge


Wheelsup


(Post # 95)

.

The sniper idea seems far fetched to me. I hear conflicting reports that they (SEALS) were on a ship others say from a helicopter. I'm no expert, quite the opposite, but I hear that it's nearly impossible to get a helicopter to stay stable enough for a sniper shot. And I have to agree with the idea of the ship bouncing too much. I could see a small team of frog-men going in. From the reports I hear it sounded more like a close fire-fight.


.

I was very happy to hear it was a good outcome for the Capt.
Just another reason that these ships need to get the restictions on fire arms lifted. trying to repoel boarders with a fire hose is not going to cut it.


.

The raft was ~50 yards to stern, on a tow line.

Also keep in mind the USS Bainbridge is a Burke class Destroyer. 500 foot long vessels certainly move on the water, but we're not talking the spastic bobbing of a 17 foot ski boat on a choppy lake.

In normal military operations, you'd be generally correct about helicopters and marksmanship, which is part of the reason why helicopters use so many machineguns. Especially with older helicopters like the Huey UH-1's that didn't have a smooth ride. HOWEVER... we are talking about special operations snipers. They are trained for this sort of thing. Now, I've not heard anything about helicopters in this particular incident (not saying there wasn't any, just I've not heard about any), but SEAL's in particular have been practicing sniping from helicopters since at least the 1980's. On more modern, smoother helicopters, piloted by experienced pilots who know what the sniper will need, this becomes possible as long as the sniper/marksman has a great deal of experience.

As for the snipers and US Navy, bloody good show!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30183355/

Never let facts get in the way of an opinion - cya in WCE where you belong, troll...

i heard the French President Sarkozy just tried to do the same thing as Obama, ordering in French commandos to save the captain of a hijacked french fishing vessel...

the french commandos mucked up bad...

Alright, stop it with the "troll" comments and comments about other nations, or this goes into the CE.

Hollywood is getting some great story material at the moment, make this one a double-bill with the Hudson crash-landing

Great job to all concerned.