USN fires on pirates 1 dead 5 wounded

bd popeye

The Last Jedi
VIP Professional
Why these African pirates were dumb enough to open fire on a USN CG is beyond me..but they did. The pic below shows the result of the USN returning fire. That had to feel below average.

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"" The suspected pirates then opened fire on the Navy ships. Cape St. George and Gonzalez returned fire with small arms in self-defense.

One suspected pirate was killed and a fire ignited aboard the main suspect vessel. Boarding teams from Cape St. George and Gonzalez took twelve other suspects into custody, including the five injured. The Navy boarding teams also confiscated an RPG launcher and automatic weapons. No U.S. Sailors were injured in the engagement.

The Navy ships are providing medical treatment to the wounded suspects, continuing search and rescue efforts for any additional suspects and collecting further evidence from the vessel and skiffs. Royal Netherlands Navy medical personnel, including a medical doctor, are en route to assist from HNLMS Amsterdam.""

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Indian Ocean (March 18, 2006) - A suspected pirate vessel ignites in flames before burning to the waterline. USS Gonzalez (DDG 66) and USS Cape St. George (CG 71) were conducting maritime security operations in international waters off the coast of Somalia and attempted to perform a routine boarding of the suspicious vessel towing two skiffs. The suspected pirates opened fire on the U.S. Navy ships and the ship's crew members returned fire. One suspect was killed and 12 were taken into custody
060318-N-8623S-003.jpg


Rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) and other armaments lay on the deck of USS Cape St. George (CG 71) after being confiscated during an early-morning engagement with suspected pirates.
060318-N-8623S-004.jpg
 

Finn McCool

Captain
Registered Member
The US milittary takes on a deadly enemy and triumphs against massive odds yet again! This action has truly made the world safe for democracy once and for all! Now that a qat addicted, ak-47 weilding Somali bandit is dead, America is once and for all safe from Terrorism. However, the US forces never would have survived without their full batteries of million dollar Tomahawks and billion dollar Aegis radar.:rofl: :roll:

But seriously...those pirates are getting out of control. And i have a lot of respect for the USN. They could blow up my house in less than 3 mins probably.
 
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bd popeye

The Last Jedi
VIP Professional
Finn McCool said:
The US milittary takes on a deadly enemy and triumphs against massive odds yet again! This action has truly made the world safe for democracy once and for all! Now that a qat addicted, ak-47 weilding Somali bandit is dead, America is once and for all safe from Terrorism. However, the US forces never would have survived without their full batteries of million dollar Tomahawks and billion dollar Aegis radar.:rofl: :roll:

But seriously...those pirates are getting out of control. And i have a lot of respect for the USN. They could blow up my house in less than 3 mins probably.

:rofl: Now that was funny..

Turns out those pirates/militiamen fired on the USN RIB(Ridgid inflatable boat) that had been deployed in the water not the CG and DDG..still a dumb move on the pirates/militiamen part. This according to the CO of the St. George.

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Captain praises response of crew to pirate skirmish
By JACK DORSEY, The Virginian-Pilot
© March 20, 2006

When suspected Somalian pirates opened fire on two small Navy boats just after dawn Saturday, the captain of the cruiser Cape St. George, waiting a few hundred yards away, had his gunners lay down covering fire long enough to allow the Navy crews to escape.

“From there, it evolved into a surface action, where the suspected pirates started shooting back at us, raking down our side,” Capt. James Russell Yohe said by telephone Sunday from the Indian Ocean near the Somalian coast. That was where the attack on the Norfolk-based Cape St. George and destroyer Gonzalez, along with two small boats the Gonzalez had sent out to investigate the suspected pirates, took place.

Yohe said he ordered his ship to full speed to get ahead of the three pirate vessels and gain an angle advantage so as not to hit the destroyer Gonzalez or its two small boats.

Nine sailors were in each of the 24-foot rigid hull inflatable boats, or RIBs as they are known.

When the pirates began shooting, the sailors returned fire, Yohe said.

Background: Pirates attack 2 Navy warships from Norfolk

The Gonzalez also fired at the larger pirate vessel, a 40-foot diesel boat, hitting a 55-gallon drum of fuel and setting it on fire, Yohe said. The crew aboard that boat dove off, he said.

At the same time, the Cape St. George was engaging the two smaller, high-speed gas-powered boats with its machine guns, he said.

“I was simply amazed they were firing at us, to be so bold as to actually continue the engagement,” Yohe said as he discussed the open-sea battle that left one suspected pirate dead and 12 under arrest. Five of those arrested were wounded.

Of the injured, two are in critical condition, two are in serious condition, and one is in good condition, said Chief Petty Officer Patrick Modglin, one of two hospital corpsmen aboard the Cape St. George who initially treated the injured.

The 12 suspects have since been transferred to the

Norfolk-based amphibious assault ship Nassau, which has a full medical staff.

No one on the Navy vessels was injured.

What began as a routine inspection attempt became the latest in a growing series of exchanges between suspected pirates and the U.S. and coalition navies patrolling that part of the world.

Saleban Aadan Barqad, a spokesman for the Somalian militiamen involved in the incident, on Sunday told The Associated Press that the U.S. Navy opened fire first.

Twenty-seven militiamen, had been “in an operation to protect the country’s sea resources from illicit exploitation by foreign vessels ” before the battle, Barqad said on two-way radio from the central Somalian town of Harardhere.

Geraad Mohamud, of the same militia group, said the militiamen would kill any hostage they capture and attack any ship unlawfully plying Somalian waters unless their men were released.

Yohe denied that the U.S. ships fired first.

“I can tell you, we have some footage that I think will resolve that,” he said . “… It will clearly show the suspected pirates firing at the Gonzalez RIB crew first.”

Yohe said his ship spotted the larger diesel boat towing the two smaller skiffs in the pre-dawn darkness Saturday. The decision was made to await sunrise before inspecting the vessels, Yohe said, and the Gonzalez and Cape St. George shadowed the suspects from a distance.

Yohe said he did n ot think the suspects knew that the Navy was there until just after sunrise.

“When the Gonzalez RIB crews approached, the suspected pirates started brandishing rocket-propelled grenade launchers, and they opened up on the RIB crews,” Yohe said.

“The RIB crews returned their fire and maneuvered. At the same time, gunners on our ship actually laid down covering fire to keep the pirates’ heads down so the Gonzalez RIBs could get out of the way and keep clear.”

It wasn’t long before the pirates surrendered.

“I was very proud of my crew today,” Yohe said Sunday . “They responded with what I considered appropriate force, and once the suspected pirates started waving their arms and we could tell they were giving up, they ceased firing and everyone stopped firing.”

Just as quickly, the Cape St. George launched its small boats to recover the wounded and arrest the other suspects, Yohe said.

“Despite having people shooting at them, they did their jobs and did them quite well,” Yohe said of his crew.

Modglin, of Suffolk, the senior corpsman aboard, said Sunday that he got about 30 minutes of sleep during more than 30 hours of treating the wounded.

Modglin said he set up a triage area on the fantail of the Cape St. George while eight stretcher bearers carried the wounded to the ship’s sick bay.

The Navy has confiscated all three suspected pirate boats, along with a number of grenades, launchers and automatic weapons as evidence in the case.

It wasn’t until the inflatable boats returned to the Cape St. George that Yohe learned some rounds had hit his ship.

“One of the crews said, 'Hey, there are bullet holes on the hull,’” Yohe said.

“You could see the paint chipped off and little dimples in the steel.”

The Cape St. George and Gonzalez were conducting maritime security operations in the area as part of Combined Task Force 150, a maritime coalition task force led by Royal Netherlands Navy Commodore Hank Ort.

Last Wednesday, the U.N. Security Council encouraged naval forces operating off the coast of Somalia to be vigilant and take action against piracy.

Pirate attacks against aid ships have hindered U.N. efforts to provide relief to the victims of a severe drought in the area.

Somalia has not had a coast guard or navy since 1991 when warlords ousted a dictatorship and then turned on each other. The troubles facing Somalia’s fledging 17-month-old transitional government, including piracy, will be discussed at a regional leaders’ meeting today.

The Gonzalez and Cape St. George have been at sea since early November, when they left Norfolk as part of the Nassau Expeditionary Strike Group.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Reach Jack Dorsey at (757) 446-2284 or [email protected]
 

bd popeye

The Last Jedi
VIP Professional
Oh great moderators..forgive me for the double posting..But I want to post a pic of a;

US Navy Ridgid Inflatable Boat
RIB.jpg
 

Astra

Just Hatched
Registered Member
Moderators edt:NO ONELINERS!!!!!!!!
 
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Kampfwagen

Junior Member
You know, when I was a kid, I wanted to be a pirate.

Seeing this thread has made me think twice about that.

I really can see how the Somali Pirates would fire on a RIB. They were probably too stupid to tell the diffrence between a standard dingy and a RIB. Probably thought the sailors were some vacationers. I know this might sound improbable, but it isint impossible and about the only thing I can think of other than 'They lost their qat-in pickin minds.' (Yes, this is a pun.)

Modern day piracy is a subject that has always intrested me. Just the thought that such activities can exist today is intresting to say the least. It's come as a bit of a shock to learn that the Somali's had a government for 17 months. Isint that a national record?
 

bd popeye

The Last Jedi
VIP Professional
Yea Kampfwagen..most of us wanted to be something exciting when we were children. I wanted to be a truck driver of any sort and I was one for seven years after I retired from the USN. and I have the 'gut'(stomach) to prove it.

Any way the pirates/militamen are now accusing the USN of firing first. Say what? :confused: They claim they were protecting fishing stocks...Oh really?

All I have to say is you have to be very ignorant to fire on any navies vessel.

Here's the story from the BBC(Not my favorite source of news)

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US captures 13 Somali 'pirates'

The US warships were patrolling the seas off Somalia
Thirteen suspected pirates involved in clashes with the US Navy off
the Somali coast on Saturday have been captured, a spokesman for the
men says.
Saleban Aadan Barqad told the BBC that his men were protecting
fishing stocks from foreign vessels when they were attacked by the
Americans.

The group has demanded that the United States release the men.

On Saturday, the US Navy reported an exchange of fire between two of
its ships and the suspected pirates.

One person was killed and five wounded in the incident, which
happened early on Saturday as the ships were conducting maritime
security operations, reports say.

No US sailors were injured in the incident.

According to the US navy, it is holding 12 suspects, but unconfirmed
reports quote the men's spokesman as saying 13 men are in custody.

It is not clear whether the 13 men include the person killed in the
gun battle on Saturday.

There are contradictory reports on how the gunbattle began.

Saleban Aadan Barqad said his men returned fire after being attacked
by the American warships. But the US navy says the warships were
targeted by the suspected pirates.

The ships - the USS Cape St George, a guided missile cruiser, and
the USS Gonzalez, a guided missile destroyer - spotted a suspect
vessel, which opened fire on them, according to a Navy statement.

They were patrolling the area as part of a Dutch-led coalition task
force.

Dangerous waters

Hijackings and piracy have recently surged off the Somali coastline.

The US navy seized rocket propelled grenades and other weapons

The area has become one of the most dangerous in the world for
piracy since warlords ousted Somalia's former ruler in 1991 and
divided the country amongst themselves.

The International Maritime Bureau has warned ships to stay away from
the coast because of the attacks. It has recorded 37 attacks since
mid-March last year.

Earlier this month, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said
pirate attacks were hampering efforts to bring food aid to Somalia
 

Kampfwagen

Junior Member
bd popeye said:
Any way the pirates/militamen are now accusing the USN of firing first. Say what? :confused: They claim they were protecting fishing stocks.

From What? The Kraken? And why on earth would the USN attack their fishing stocks?

Seriously! Just what in the flying blue f*ck were these morons thinking?!
 

Finn McCool

Captain
Registered Member
They were thinking about where they would get there next fix of qat or hashish or heroin or some other "terrorist drug"
 
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