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The US navy says it has captured a number of suspected pirates in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Somalia. The guided missile destroyer USS Winston S Churchill went in pursuit of a suspect vessel after receiving a report of piracy, the navy said. When other efforts failed, the Churchill fired warning shots to bring the boat to a halt.

The U.S. Navy boarded an apparent pirate ship in the Indian Ocean and detained 26 men for questioning, the Navy said Sunday. The 16 Indians and 10 Somali men were aboard a traditional dhow that was chased and seized Saturday by the U.S. guided missile destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill, said Lt. Leslie Hull-Ryde of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain. The dhow stopped fleeing after the Churchill twice fired warning shots during the chase, which ended 87 kilometers (54 miles) off the coast of Somalia, the Navy said. U.S. sailors boarded the dhow and seized a cache of...

Two Norfolk-based guided missile destroyers collided off the coast of Jacksonville, on Monday afternoon while conducting exercises, The Virginian-Pilot reported. No one was injured and damage was minor, Cmdr. Conrad Chun, a Navy spokesman in Norfolk, told The Virginian-Pilot. The collision happened at about 1:30 p.m. The USS McFaul and the USS Winston S. Churchill are Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers. The McFaul is commanded by Cmdr. Sean M. Connors and was commissioned in 1998. The Winston S. Churchill is commanded by Cmdr. Todd W. Leavitt and entered Navy service in 2001, the Virginian-Pilot reported. The incident is under investigation.

AN ENCOURAGING WORD Below is an e-mail from a young ensign aboard the USS Winston Churchill to his parents. (Churchill is an Arleigh Burke-class AEGIS guided-missile destroyer, commissioned March 10, 2001, and is the only active U.S. Navy warship named after a foreign national.) "Dear Dad, "We are still at sea. The remainder of our port visits have all been cancelled. We have spent every day since the attacks going back and forth within imaginary boxes drawn in the ocean, standing high-security watches, and trying to make the best of it. We have seen the articles and the photographs, and...

ABOARD USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT, EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN It was Friday evening and Rabbi Maurice Kaprow, deputy chaplain of the US Navy's Sixth Fleet, led a small congregation aboard this aircraft carrier in a Kabbalat Shabbat service. As we reached the verse in "Lecha Dodi" translated as "whose shelter of peace is spread over us," a jet returning from an operation in northern Iraq slammed down on the flight deck above us, sending a rumble through the chapel. Kaprow, a Conservative rabbi from Florida, had just arrived aboard for a three-week stint during which he plans to hold Shabbat services, Friday night...