That’s how you do that!
The US Navy, put an end to the hostage standoff utilizing the skills of Navy Seals and their snipers where Somali Pirates, were holding Richard Phillips, the Captain of the Maersk Alabama!
Bloomberg: Sharpshooters firing from the fantail of a U.S. Navy destroyer killed three pirates holding an American cargo-ship captain in a lifeboat, ending a five-day ordeal that unfolded amid a surge in piracy off Somalia’s coast.
Richard Phillips, 53, captain of the Maersk Alabama, was untied, pulled from the lifeboat and brought unharmed aboard the USS Bainbridge, said Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, the commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command.
The Navy acted because Phillips’s life was threatened by pirates who were aiming weapons at him, Gourtney said. The on- scene commander “had seconds” to make a decision, he said.
Cmdr. Frank Castellano, CO of the USS Bainbridge (DDG-96)shakes hands with an appreciative Captain Phillips after the successful actions of the US NAVY!
Phillips is quoted as saying in a phone conversation to his bosses at Maersk, "I'm just the byline. The heroes are the Navy, the Seals and those that have brought me home…"
“The captain’s life was in immediate danger,” said Gortney, who spoke by teleconference from his headquarters in Bahrain. “The pirates were armed with AK-47s and had small- caliber pistols, and they were pointing the AK-47 at the captain.”
The White House is stating that President Obama “ORDERED” the Defense department to take all necessary action if the captain's life was in immediate danger.
Uh… Thanks?
A hearty BRAVO ZULU goes out to the Seals and the Crew of the USS Bainbridge, and USS Boxer for taking it to ‘em!
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