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| Africa Horn |
| Sailors, Coasties capture suspected pirates |
| 2009-05-14 |
| Surrendering from a rust heap that appeared barely able to float, 17 suspected pirates were captured Wednesday off the coast of Yemen by sailors and Coast Guardsmen operating from the cruiser Gettysburg. Pic at the link. They're not exaggerating... Lt. Nate Christensen, a Navy spokesman at 5th Fleet in Bahrain, said the suspected pirates are still aboard the cruiser, where they were taken for questioning. “Right now, a determination is being made if theyll be turned over for prosecution,” he said. According to a release from 5th Fleet, the Gettysburg and a destroyer from the Republic of Korea, Munmu the Great, responded to a distress call from an Egyptian merchant ship on May 13. The ship, the motor vessel Amira, reported being attacked while 75 miles off Al Mukalla, Yemen. An SH-60B crew from Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light 46, dispatched from Gettysburg, later located whats being described as a pirate “mothership.” The boarding teams found eight assault rifles, a rocket-propelled grenade and launcher aboard the suspected pirate ship. The Egyptian ship reported being fired on by suspects in a skiff, who also tried to board by throwing a line over. Christensen could not say for sure if the suspected pirates are from Somalia, although most ship hijackers in the region live there. The Gettysburg, based in Mayport, Fla., now serves as the flagship for Combined Task Force 151, the multinational counterpiracy flotilla established in January. CTF 151 is currently commanded by Rear Adm. Caner Bener of Turkey, embarked aboard Gettysburg. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #11 Sure - from one of our four-stack destroyers. Well I've been trying to tell you for weeks in our various arguments that we're dreadfully short on four-stack destroyers. Why is it everyone and their cousin in the third world has decent Wilkes class knockoffs but we don't? Why does Chad's shipbuilding procurement system work and ours doesn't? Obviously purchased at the gun show in Austin. Cause that's what the Donks say. /sarc off Typical, everyone wants to deny us the simple small arms we need to Keep Austin Weird. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2009-05-14 15:48 |
| #10 ...a rocket-propelled grenade and launcher.. Obviously purchased at the gun show in Austin. Cause that's what the Donks say. /sarc off |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-05-14 14:42 |
| #9 drop a depth charge set at minimum setting Sure - from one of our four-stack destroyers. Sheesh. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2009-05-14 14:36 |
| #8 How did that happen? Anyway the comment was for this article. Ya gotta love that photo caption: "Visit, board, search and sieze" - not like in Ding-Dong Avon Calling. |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2009-05-14 13:39 |
| #7 Don't all fishing boats carry RPGs for self defense? You know - against the Great White Sharks? Come to think of it, if I were fishing off of Somalia, I'd be trying to carry something to defend myself from the sharks. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2009-05-14 13:20 |
| #6 Pull up alongside at full speed, drop a depth charge set at minimum setting, and head away. One stern trawler will form a new reef for the fishies. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2009-05-14 13:17 |
| #5 Nah, they should have just helped it leak a little faster... |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2009-05-14 12:29 |
| #4 Don't all fishing boats carry RPGs for self defense? You know - against the Great White Sharks? |
| Posted by: Bobby 2009-05-14 12:22 |
| #3 They should have called the Russians to come and pick them up. There hasn't been a peep out of those 29 guys they captured a week or two ago. |
| Posted by: gromky 2009-05-14 12:20 |
| #2 They should have sank it. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2009-05-14 11:00 |
| #1 |
| Posted by: tu3031 2009-05-14 10:51 |