I'm posting the following email I received from a friend from a friend from a friend, with names removed by me. I can't vouch for its authenticity, but the email headers are all navy domain...
as originally received, except for removal of multiple email word-wraps and removal of names
CAUTION - contains a little sailor language
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----- Original Message -----
From: xxxxx
To: Undisclosed recipients:
Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 10:55 AM
Subject: Terry & the Pirates - 2009
This is the first-hand account from a sailor onboard the USS Boxer.
Jargon key located at the bottom.
How did YOU spend Easter!? I spent mine watching some pirates get
spattered off the coast of Somalia!
I've been taking notes on facts and (well noted) speculation and rumors.
What I know is on the eleventh of April, 2009 at 1600 two C17 cargo planes
flew over Boxer and out of the back four parachutes emerged. Then came the
boats! Four very fast 1300 hp SWCC boats with radar and guns!
After those were safely extracted the personnel and SEALs jumped.
About 95 people in all arrived in the water near Boxer.
Swam to the ship and entered the well-deck.
I spoke with some of the SEALs in the hangar bay where they are staging
their gear for the time being. He was rearranging his gear and talking to a
younger looking Ops guy with shoulder-length hair and a feeble semblance of a
beard. I struck up a conversation with them and they're really friendly the
older SEAL finished with his bag and reached for a rifle case casually unzipped
it and pulled out a Mark 416 a highly specialized carbine and as he explained
"it's basically an M -4, but made by H&K so it's better!"
"Visible and non-visible lasers, collapsible stock. It's nice."
"And is that an advanced armament suppressor?" I asked.
"Yeah that just makes it sound better, and the ladies love it!"
I asked him if it's the coolest job in the navy.
"Well I haven't ever flown an F-18 off a carrier, but yeah, pretty much!"
"You guys don’t wear any insignia."
"We don't wear it, but we're still in the Navy."
"I know that but what's with that?"
"Well I'm a Chief, and he is a second-class"
"Oh, ok"
"So, Chief, did you come in as a SEAL?"
"Yep, you don't have to be formal, that's why we don't wear it. It gets in
the way and besides, we know who's in charge."
"Well I have to get back to watch."
"OK, any time you see us over hear and just want to chat and shoot the
****, feel free!"
"Cool, thanks"
"Any time"
I also found out from the CPO that the guys flew in from VB on C17's and
that took 18 hours!
They parachuted into the ocean! That’s cool as hell!
At 2100 on Saturday we were headed for the area where the USS Bainbridge
(DDG 96) was already in position several hundred miles east off of Somalia's
coast.
And on Sunday there were so many parts of our engine that were broken from
traveling at flank speed (full Bendix) that we stopped the shaft engaged the
jacking gear, pinned the gear and tagged out the ************! I spent three
watches fabricating parts, helping replace sight-flow indicators on journal
bearings and running around the ship.
On Easter Sunday night, at around 1530 I was making my hourly rounds
through the hangar bay and heard four distant rifle reports and knew exactly
what happened. There was an orange capsule being towed by Bainbridge.
Two SEAL snipers laying prone on the fantail with Barrett .50 cal rifles
pointed at the small craft.
CAPT. Richard Phillips of Vermont was swimming toward the RHIB sitting
close to the lifeboat.
When the Navy said that we want to see proof of life the good captain
jumped into the water and started to draw fire from the pirates. The Snipers
fired.
I had to return to my watch station and at close of business I assumed my
next watch: CNN's live broadcast of speculation and grievous bull****! I
haven't decipher all of this crap for you.
At 2300 Africa time the Maersk Alabama safely docked in Mombasa, Kenya and
the crew was debriefed by the FBI for some reason.
Captain Phillips was Logged onboard Boxer at 1836 and one skinny, short,
pitiful-looking (and never in a million year is he sixteen) pirate, who was
escorted, handcuffed despite the wounds, wearing blacked out ski goggles,
through the hangar bay by like 20 marines and MA's.
He has asked for amnesty. He'll probably get a UN Trial for international
piracy.
(I witness all of this and have to wonder: hasn't copyright protection gone
just a little too far? I mean, why are we killing folks over some illegal
DVDs?)
"We always laugh and joke about pirates onboard and don't realize that this
is one of the world's most serious crimes!"
-Me, four hours ago.
Monday, APR 13, 2009.
At 0930 USS Boxer sits of the coast of Somalia and the Bainbridge is at her
stern on the port side in tow, the life boat containing three lifeless pirates
dispatched into oblivion by the best sharpshooters the world around.
The corpses are transferred under the heaviest morgue security I've seen
since President Ford's funeral to the USS Boxer's chilled holding facility.
At 1000 the lifeboat from Alabama is hoisted onto Boxer's flight deck by
the local crane.
I was there when the boat arrived onboard. Standing next to some chopper
refueling buddies and joking about the incident.
"Hey, what's orange, full of blood and hanging from a crane?"
"What?"
"That boat that some pirates got smoked in."
Probably the most interesting Easter I've ever spent!
Looking closely at the boat, I see four large bullet holes on the STB side
where "justice" entered the pirate's minds.
Some brain matter sloshed around in the boat.
I was told before I left San Diego that I would hate the Boxer, I tell you
now, I wouldn't rather be on any other ship.
Broken parts and all I like it.
1025
"Maersk Alabama, Departing." is heard over the 1MC.
The name of the ship is used to describe the Captain as he is at the top of
the command.
Personal speculation and trusted brass scuttlebutt says that our AOR has
shifted from the Gulf of Aden where there aren't any pirates, to where we sit
now.
16 ships and 200 hostages from various countries still remain stranded…
Not for long, I predict.
As always, keeping it real on the high seas with the US Navy,
XXXX XXX, XXX USS Boxer, Somalia
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KEY:
SWCC, Special Warfare Combatant Crewman, brown water
H&K, Heckler and Koch, famous German weapon's designer's world renowned
for their popular .45 cal USP (universal service pistol) and other
highly precise firearms.
CPO, Chief Petty Officer, USN, E7
VB, Virginia Beach, Virginia, East coast headquarter of Special Warfare.
DDG, Guided Missile Destroyer
Flank, the fastest speed the ship can travel, equal to about 35 knots
RHIB, (rib) Rigid-hulled inflatable boat
STB, Starboard (right)
1MC, numeric designation for the main announcing circuit used on U.S. Navy vessels.
AOR, Area Of Responsibility, the confines within which we roam.
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