As anyone can read online the movie “Captain Phillips” was highly altered to make the real life Captain Phillips look like a hero. He was not – and he admits it. He consciously chose to sail within the pirate zone to save time.
So much occurred that didn’t have to. The cowardice of the crew aside, it was amazing to see such a large merchant ship at the mercy of only three Third World pirates in a motorized dinghy. During my last assignment on active duty army I researched the maritime piracy issue. I was not surprised to learn the Maritime Board preferred to pay ransoms rather than allow military-type rescue missions and to forbid the use of either armed guards or armed crewmen on board. Thomas Jefferson learned as president of the United States that only encourages more piracy. I was aware of the feckless mechanical defensive measures used by ships such as the Maersk Alabama. One defensive measure they haven’t considered is to reverse engines. That would run over the approaching pirates sucking them into the huge propellers – a fitting end.
But my interest was primarily with the tactical operation conducted by the “legends-in-their-own-minds” SEALS. I’ve gone through basic airborne training at Ft. Benning, GA with a bunch of them and through Special Forces Communications training (Phase 2 of the Q Course) with one. I worked with two great ones at Special Operations Command-Korea (SOC-K). They are generally a bunch of good guys and certainly the most physically fit -as a group- of anyone in the entire military. By doctrine their area of operations is on the high seas and the littoral edges of coastlines. They should stick to that. Their incursion into inland operations usually don’t bode well for them. There are several reasons for this:
1. Role inflation – also known as “biting off more than they can chew” or “their egos writing checks their asses can’t cash”.
One example occurred during the invasion of Panama. Someone who didn’t know doctrine tasked the SEALS to capture Panama dictator Manuel Noriega’s private plane. Now normally planes are parked at airports – which Noriega’s plane was, nice and secure inside a well-guarded hangar. During the pre-mission briefback only one LDO (limited duty officer) who apparently DID know doctrine had the balls to object to the mission stating specifically it was a RANGER mission. He and everyone else in the Special Operations community knows assaulting and securing an airfield is a RANGER mission. But woe to the officer who tells his commander “that’s not our job”! In this case shit really did roll down hill. Receiving the mission in the first place, accepting the mission in the second and the FUBAR execution of the mission that occurred at the airfield itself.
SEALS are organized ass-backward. Whereas in army Special Forces (there is only one called that – the Green Berets. Everyone else is Special Operations.) an SF team is comprised of 12 men. A conventional infantry platoon consists of four squads, each of 10-12 men totalling about 50 men, the SEALS reverse it and call their smallest operational unit a platoon and the larger composed of several platoons a team. Don’t ask me why…it IS the Navy.
So one SEAL platoon composed of no more than 10-12 men rubber boated up the river to the end of the runway and started diddy boppin’ like Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke down the middle of the runway toward the hangar where Noriega’s plane was parked. They did have an AC-130 gunship overhead which presumably had their back. Their evening stroll PASSED men loading drug shipments onto aircraft parked alongside the runway. Why they didn’t realize these people were basically observation posts (OPs) and kill them before they cell phoned their boss at the ops center (assuming they had suppressors) I don’t know. So it shouldn’t have been a surprise when the PDF (Panamanian Defense Forces) soldiers started coming out of base ops and manning bunkers guarding the hangar. The SEALS were immediately pinned down in the open in the middle of the runway by PDF gunfire. Rather than take cover behind parked aircraft (or approaching tactically along the side of the runway), they assumed a prone skirmish line on the open runway (not a recommended IAD – immediate action drill). This resulted in SEALS being killed either by direct or richocheted bullets bouncing off the runway. Their radio man tried directing AC-130 gunfire onto the PDF. The report infers he was unfamiliar with his commo gear and unable to communicate with the aircraft. Then he was killed. The gunner on the AC-130 watched the SEALS being shot up but refused to lay down protective fire onto the PDF without commo from the SEALS (they ARE Air Force and not used to making tactical decisions).
The mission was to capture Noriega’s plane. Why? If the desired end state was to prevent Noriega’s escape why not just send one AC-130 and blast it with its’ 105mm howitzer? If the mission was to secure the airfield then send in the Rangers. The platoon leader, finally, in a brilliant flash of inspiration decided “F__k this!” and blew Noriega’s plane away with an AT-4. The LDO and I aren’t the only ones who asked “Why capture?” “Why the SEALS?”
2. Failure to conduct or listen to timely / sufficient intelligence on the target. I’ll explain this in my analysis of Sole Survivor that occurred in Afghanistan. I’m not intentionally picking on SEALS. It’s just that they provide so much opportunity for tactical analysis – being SEALS and all.
So back to Captain Phillips. The distance between the escape pod containing Cpt. Phillips and the three pirates was negligible. The seas and winds were calm with some night illumination. Any one of the Marines already aboard the Navy destroyer could have done the same thing the “high-speed, low-drag” SEALS did -and they didn’t have to fly a thousand miles and HALO into ocean. If every crisis incident wasn’t managed by the bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. (especially under Muslim-loving OBAMA) the Navy destroyer captain could have tasked the Marine marksmen (who are the best trained marksmen in the world by they way) to set up an observation post (OP) and conduct negotiations with the pirates himself. Why bother the President of the United States with a few piddly-ass pirates?
I can’t help wondering why the SEALS who (supposedly) had eyes on the pod when Cpt. Phillips made his daring escape attempt by jumping into the water did not know who was in the water? Gee, lying on a warm deck on a moonlit night with gentle breeze and swells rocking you….ZZZZZZ! It wouldn’t have been the first time the deck of a Navy ship had been used as a mattress. An alert marksman with a night scope should have identified Cpt. Phillips standing in the pod door and anticipated the obvious – him jumping in the water. Knowing that, riddling the pod doorway with 7.62cal. rounds would have been the obvious immediate response to cover Phillips’ escape. That’s what a MARINE would have done. Instead Phillips was exposed for significant seconds to the ire of the pirate standing in the doorway because too much time was spent trying to figure out who was in the water! Phillips is lucky he wasn’t gunned into shark chum by the pirates for trying to escape. Covering his escape by pulverizing the pod would have saved the taxpayers money on setting up the idiot who survived in a federal prison. Heck, he’ll probably be pardoned by the next Democrat president and granted U.S. citizenship as a refugee.
I like the Russians way of solving piracy. Once they get them in custody (if any survive) the captain of the Russian ship simply throws them overboard. “Pirates? What Pirates?” When the famous pirate Blackbeard was killed in the 18th century the British ship’s captain cut off his head and attached it to the bow of the ship as they sailed back into Portsmouth. But if you want to send a real message, hang ’em by the yardarm until their carcasses rot. AARRR!!!
