The Patriot Files Forums - Somebody help me with this...

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Somebody help me with this...

Even though I worked for the Navy, don't they have Marines on their ships anymore? Help me understand this. The CAPT of the Merchant Marine Ship dives into the water from the prison lifeboat and begins swimming toward the Destroyer that's only 200 yards away. Who was not watching this on the ship and why wasn't everyone on the lifeboat shot the second the CAPT got in the water? 200 yards is nothing. All Navy ships have those huge binoculars that they could have counted the flies on each of those Skinnys heads. So why are any of them alive at this moment? The ONLY thing I can think of is they are under orders from somewhere not to do a damn thing. What about a sub letting off some SEALS under them to swim up and kill them all. This is a dark day in America if you ask me. I'm not making this political, I'm just concerned that maybe we need to name the Destroyer something else....like a Bass Boat because it looks like it had it's chance to "destroy" and didn't. I just don't get it.

Puzzled Pack

Can`t help you, Tom. I don`t get it either. Only thing that comes to mind is that somewhere, some flag level officer (Or Higher) has ordered the squids not to engage these pieces of excrement; but for the love of God, I have no idea why.

Did this happen during daylight hours or at night?

Was night vision equipment in use?

I remember the first generation Starlight system, and it wasn't good enough to identify individuals.

How far did the Captain get, and how long before he was discovered missing?

Was there enough time for the Navy to react?

You get it Packy. It's a dark day in America. It's a day when our security (or lack there of) will be decided on not what is best for America but will our actions offend the delicate nature of the French, the Saudi's, China, Spain, well, you get the picture. Sis

The Navy doesn't have Marines on Destroyers. They have gunners mates and guns on the bows.

I emailed GunnerCarvo.

Joy

Our equipment was stoneage compared to what they have now. If your the Destroyer why wouldn't you have somebody watching that lifeboat 24/7 and either some weapons system or Marines with scopes trained on it. Night or day they should have been counting the flies buzzing around their nappy heads. I'm not saying that they didn't....I'm just wondering what happened when that man was swimming toward them, swimming for his life and what orders that ship has.

Thanks Joy. So would the gunners have weapons trained on the Skinnies? Ask Gunner what capabilities the Destroyer would have. I really don't have a clue whether they have .50's anymore and would there be trained Navy marksmen?

Pack

I don't know how much he'd be able to tell y'all but they do have a 50 cal & gunners are trained in the use of it.

They have 4 .50 cal machine guns. They also have a SWAT team.

Sounds like it is a complicated situation

Captain a hero on the high seas
FBI joins negotiations for release of pirate hostage

The outgunned and outnumbered Somali pirates, ignoring the overwhelming odds against them, set the cost of freedom Friday for a hostage American captain: $2 million.

The seven-figure ransom was established after heroic skipper Richard Phillips failed in a daring Indian Ocean escape attempt, a pirate in Somali told Reuters.
Phillips is in his third day of captivity with the four pirates, bobbing inside a lifeboat.

Phillips' bid for freedom ended with shots fired from the pirates responsible for the botched Wednesday hijacking of the Maersk Alabama in the lawless waters off Somalia, authorities said.

The 53-year-old captain tried swimming several hundred yards to the USS Bainbridge, but he turned around after one of the pirates squeezed off a round from an automatic weapon, officials said.

The failed escape try came as Phillips's captors awaited back-up from other pirates using hostages as human shields, authorities said, raising the stakes in the watery standoff.

Pirates holding hostages aboard hijacked foreign ships said they were heading toward the stranded lifeboat to support their comrades.

Two of those ships hold 54 hostages - and the implied threat of harm to the captives if the four Somalis holding Phillips hostage are attacked by U.S. forces.

"We are not intending to harm the captain, so that we hope our colleagues would not be harmed as long as they hold him," one pirate told The Associated Press.

The pirate indicated his cohorts trapped inside a lifeboat with Phillips hope to escape safely with the ransom money.