CNN suggests Hollywood will probably make a movie about the this.
Congratulations to the military involved. I have no difficulty with the pirates dying in the action.
Ok, again. The boat was 30 METERS away at the time. Are you suggesting that during the entirety of the incident, the destroyer was sitting less than 100 feet away?
A short range shot like that wasn’t made by “snipers”. That’s well within normal shooting range, for any weapon. This is far, far different from your claims (need I quote your “200 yards” in the OP?).
I’m sorry if you are completely unable to understand how this went down, and how it wasn’t a matter of just “sending in the SEALs”. But your snarky comments while posting links that demonstrate how wrong you were are nothing more than goofy posturing on top of some sort of redneck power fantasy or a Hollywood screenwriter’s idea of reality.
My analysis stands. They negotiated, got close, and only then were able to place a team in position to make an assault. There were no SEALS swimming around in the water or a team of long range crack shots ready to put lead in the 10 ring at 200+ yards in choppy seas.
Fine by me, and I suspect everyone else; but I strongly doubt you’ll have anything other than three separate lawless shitholes instead of one big one.
check
check
check
Always?
check
Admit it. You’ve clearly shown you haven’t got a fucking clue.
Wow, you are actually an incredible moron.
A: No SEALs snuck on board the lifeboat. Check indeed.
B: The ship was obviously farther away for most of the incident. Check.
C: No SEALs actually snuck up on anything. Check.
D: You got me there, they managed not to kill anyone other than 3 of the 4 pirates. This is good.
As others have stated, you are an idiot. You posted a stupid OP, people pointed out how wrong you were, and you failed to respond with a useful or realistic comment about how these SEALs were supposed to sneak up and take out the tangos on zero notice. Then after a lengthy negotiation session, followed by taking the lifeboat in tow, and taking shots from less than one sixth the distance you claimed in the OP and getting one hostile onto their own ship, the hostage is rescued. You then not only reverse your position, but then you claim to have been right all along. If it was possible at any time, then the Captain is still a fucking moron by your own logic, because when the hostage jumped in the water the first time they obviously weren’t ready to go.
So, other than your continuing failure to provide any arguments for your inane asshattery other than "ZOMGS WE FUCKED UP THEM GODDAMN DARKIE PIRATE MUTHAFUCKERS!!! AMERCIA FUCK YEAH!!! ", I have yet to see an excuse for why you think you were right when the tactical situation clearly changed quite significantly.
(I mean, an explanation other than your obvious expertise in hostage situations on the open ocean because you shot skeet on the deck of an ocean liner. Moron.)
BTW, this article verifies the distance and also talks about how they were previously unable to get close to the boat. So I guess the Navy needs to hire you for tactical planning.
Coming from a complete and dishonest idiot I can only laugh.
I’ve never proposed or discussed sneaking on board. If you can’t fucking read, how can you fucking assess the situation we are talking about.
Earlier reports mention 200 yards. No big deal for sharp shooters who obviously arrived to deal with the situation before the opportunity to get even closer. Your possible 10 mile estimate to handle this crisis is a joke
Once again, you are showing how fucking dishonest you are in an attempt to salvage your dignity. Show me where I suggested that the SEALS should sneak up on the pirates.
Arguing with you is like shooting pirates in a lifeboat.
Well, just yesterday you were claiming that the captain was a moron because he couldn’t close the deal. Which is it?
Is the captain a moron yesterday, but a genius today? Or is he a moron yesterday and still a moron today? Or was he a genius all along?
Was this an easy job? If it was easy then the captain is a moron because he didn’t do it five minutes after getting the pirates in visual range. Ivn1188 wasn’t claiming that this was impossible, just that it wasn’t easy, and they were waiting for the best possible time to improve the odds of the hostage living. There wasn’t any hurry, the pirates were either gonna end up dead or captured, the only variable in the situation was whether the hostage got to live or not.
My initial criticism of the commander (he is not a captain) was based simply on the failure to takle advantage of the hostage escape attempt. The hostage was in the water and briefly alone safe from a bullet barrage on the lifeboat.
He just wasn’t ready, And given what I’ve heard lately he may not even have had the authorization to use force.
Anyway, its clear to me that had he had the manpower and authorization in place during the escape attempt, this would have been over sooner,
I don’t think things are nearly as clear as you think they are.
In addition to your irresponsible OP, you came back with a cite from personal experience about skeet shooting on a cruise ship. Never mind that skeet shooting uses shot - never mind that the targets are being launched from a platform that you’re riding thus negating the actual motion of the ship.
I’m a fair skeet shooter - I’d wash out as a sniper in a second.
BTW - the CO of a navy vessel is generally called the ship’s captain whatever his rank might be.
I have been critical enough of the Navy over the years - I won’t shy away from criticism now if it is warranted. I would like to know more about he whole incident before spouting off, though.
After all, I wouldn’t want to come across as a pilotless and unguided vessel.
Not that I read the entire thread or anything, but I doubt it was a coordinated escape “OK, on the count of three, I jump off the boat, swim 50 yards, then you guys just shoot the hell out of that tub, got it? Good. OK, one, two…WAIT! Is it one two three and THEN go?”
Good things happened, pirates died, hero captain lives, a few pirates turn in their eye patches and hooks and go back to selling live chickens for rituals because the US MotherFuckin Navy is on the case, bitches!
Seriously,
This ended well. It could just as easily not have. Those guys are the experts, they got the job done. Good on 'em. I do like E-Sabbath’s thinking though, because, of course, it’s the same thing I thought of. Drug em. Make everybody go nanies, and bobs-yer-uncle, 3 more baddie in the brig and Cap’n gets to go back to the North East Kingdom. I know it’s not practical and more than a little dangerous, but hey…
…Also I thought about just slowly sinking the boat so everybody would have to swim for it, then the snipers could have their pick.
Yes he is.
This is incorrect - it negates only the instantaneous velocity of the ship, at the moment the skeet is launched.
So if the swell means your ship is rising at .1 m/s at the time of launch, the skeet will have an additional .1 m/s vertical velocity, and these will cancel out. But that doesn’t help you a second later when your ship is falling .1 m/s, and these velocities no longer cancel out.
Is it an African or an European skeet?
That’s true to a point, but I’ve been on those cruise ships. They’re stabilized and you’re doing some ten knots or more when they break the skeet launcher out. You might as well be on dry land then.
In the Indian Ocean, with a rifle, against a target not moving - you really have to worry about the swells there. I have no doubt that’s why the snipers were ont he fantail - the lowest spot they could get. If this still afforded them a good shot, they would feel the swells less there.
His rank is Commander (O-5). This is indeed below the rank of Captain (O-6).
Regardless of rank, however, in the U.S. Navy, the Commanding Officer (CO) of a ship is referred to as the “Captain” of the ship. It has to do with his/her duty assignment, not his/her rank.
I was in the Navy, and I routinely addressed and referred to my CO as “Captain.” His rank was actually that of a Commander (CDR), though. Frankly, referring to him as anything other than “Captain” would be looked upon as an insult.
Now, if you were going to refer to the CO in the third person, using his full name, it would not be incorrect to refer to him as “CDR Francis Castellano.” Nevertheless, the CO is never referred to as the “commander” of the ship. His formal position is that of the Commanding Officer, which equates to the Captain of the ship.
–robby (former LCDR, USNR)
Thanks for the clarification.
At the risk of injecting too much fact into the Pit, could you confirm something with me? All of my experience has been in the Army. I have worked with the Navy on several occasions but always in a Joint, staff kind of situation. It is my understanding that most ship captains are of the O5 rank. The only ship O-6 ship captains I have seen are carrier captains. The carriers tend to have several O-6s in various billets including the CAG. It also seems that installation commanders tend to be O-6s. Do I have that right?