I spent many a night on this old girl.
Posted on 04/01/2010 11:37:40 AM PDT by politicalmerc
NAIROBI, Kenya – The small gang of Somali pirates fired on an approaching ship, hoping their midnight attack would bring them millions in ransom. The ragtag bandits, though, had taken on far more than they could handle: a U.S. warship.
The USS Nicholas, a guided missile frigate, was tracking the pirates when they opened fire early Thursday in Indian Ocean waters, the U.S. military said. The Nicholas, which saw combat in the first Gulf War, returned fire and disabled the skiff.
Navy personnel later boarded and detained three suspects. The Americans found two more bandits on a nearby mothership and later sank the skiff.
It was not the first attack against a Navy ship, but it underscored the fact that most pirates aren't terribly sophisticated, said Roger Middleton, a piracy expert at the British think tank Chatham House.
"If you think of the kind of young men who are doing this, they go out into the middle of the ocean in a tiny boat. They might not always make rational decisions, and they often attack things that are bigger than they should (attack)," said Middleton.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
No Tomahawks. No missiles at all (the "guided-missile frigate" and "FFG" designations are no longer applicable). Don't get me started again on how pitiful the Perry class is. They're capable of blowing skinny skiffs out of the water, I suppose, and not much more.
LOL.
Response: A PC way of saying "They ain't too bright!"
So, is the score still Navy 3 — Pirates 0, or has Navy increased its lead?
Ooooooh. I LIKE the Vulcan idea!!! Course, you'd need four of 'em: one each in the bow, stern, port and starboard sides. And I too proposed Q-ships way back when as well! But of course Obama is such a lily-livered SOB. We need a Prez like Jefferson who would really know how to deal with pirates. I'm sure you remember that Jefferson's whole rationale for a U.S. Navy in the first place was to deal with the Barbary pirates, basically the very same bunch that's got our tits tied in a ringer right now. Oh, how far we have sunk as a world power since 1805!
The “heavy weapon” on a Perry class frigate is a 76mm rapid firing gun.
More than enough to sink a bunch of pirates.
Yup...I remember the hall of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli....the Tripoli part being related to the pirates.
I was stationed aboard USS Reuben James (FFG-57) from Jan ‘99 to Oct 2000. (I was given early orders to leave for a shore command upon promotion to IS3). This little dialog, real or not, was quite funny! It reminds me of that old transcription of a “conversation” between a lighthouse and a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier. If you haven’t heard or read that little gem, look it up. Great stuff.
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