bobdina
09-10-2010, 12:51 PM
By Dan Lamothe - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Sep 10, 2010 10:40:09 EDT
The calls for help came about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday: The crew of the Magellan Star, a German-owned shipping vessel in the Gulf of Aden, needed help after it was boarded by armed Somali pirates about 85 miles off the coast of Yemen.
The resulting operation will likely be a feather in the cap of the Marine Corps and its force reconnaissance community for years to come.
After a day of deliberations that reached senior White House and Pentagon officials, Marines with 2nd Platoon, Force Reconnaissance Company, out of Camp Pendleton, Calif., launched a daring early morning raid known as a VBSS, or visit-board-search-seize. Pushing off from the amphibious transport dock Dubuque at dawn Thursday, they stormed the ship without a shot being fired, taking nine suspected pirates prisoner, Marine officials said.
The mission, overseen by Pendleton’s 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, is one of the first high-profile operations for force recon Marines in years. It also could affect the outcome of a two-year assessment the Corps is conducting to determine how the service should storm ships in the future without special operators from Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, which has concentrated its efforts in Afghanistan, Commandant Gen. James Conway said in an interview Thursday.
“When we lost our MARSOC Marines to shipboard life … we had a reduction in terms of our special operations capabilities aboard ships,” Conway said. “So, we’ve been examining different concepts off both coasts, and it was a West Coast force reconnaissance capability that just conducted this successful operation.”
As a result of that success, the commandant said the Corps will likely continue deploying MEUs with force reconnaissance platoons, which are not considered spec-op units but are capable of conducting some spec-op tasks. Gen. James Mattis, head of U.S. Central Command, should be able to count on the consistent ship-boarding capability they offer at sea, even if it means the conventional reconnaissance capability of Marine expeditionary forces might be diminished, Conway said.
“We can’t call General Mattis and say, ‘OK, this six months you’ve got this West Coast capability that is force reconnaissance and probably a little more capable,’ ” he said. “I think we’re going to have to come to one consistent kind of capability you put out at sea, and I think we’re going to have to go to the higher order, even though it may be a little more painful in terms of the workup and possibly some degradation of the MEF commander’s reconnaissance capability.”
Col. David Coffman, who commands Pendleton’s 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, said he was thrilled to hear about the raid’s success. It validates the need for VBSS capabilities within MEUs, he said.
“We don’t like a fair fight,” said Coffman, who begins training his unit this month for a future deployment. “You bring a gun to a knife fight.”
A coordinated effort
While force reconnaissance conducted the boarding of Magellan Star, the operation involved numerous units, many of which fall under the 15th MEU. They include a battalion landing team headed by Pendleton’s 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, which oversaw the mission and provided snipers in over-watch positions. Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 165 (reinforced), out of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif., provided Huey and Cobra gunship helicopters for aerial surveillance and support.
Officials with the Navy’s 5th Fleet, based out of Bahrain, said 24 Marines were involved in the initial raid. Marine officials did not confirm those numbers, but photographs released by the military show about that many troops floating from Dubuque to Magellan Star on what appears to be inflatable rigid hull boats commonly used by Navy SEALs.
Brig. Gen. David Berger, director of operations at Marine Corps headquarters, said officials at the Pentagon, State Department and White House began discussing options by midday Wednesday. The Marines were viewed as an option because they were in the vicinity while traveling toward Jordan, where they planned to train with Jordanian troops, he said.
While the Dubuque traveled through the area, however, it fell under the control of Combined Joint Task Force 151, the counter-piracy force that has fought pirates off the coast of Somalia since January 2009. The first ship to respond to the Magellan Star’s distress calls was the task force’s flag ship, the Turkish vessel TCG Gokceada. The Dubuque and the Navy cruiser Princeton responded not long after, 5th Fleet officials said.
The alleged pirates showed hostile intention toward the Dubuque as it drew near, said Lt. Col. J.R. Clearfield, commander of BLT 1/4. They repeatedly pointed their weapons at the Dubuque and said in radio communications that they would not surrender and planned to demand money from the Magellan Star’s owner, he said.
When the Marines boarded the ship, however, the suspected pirates changed their tune. Faced with overwhelming firepower, they gave up relatively easily, with several of them putting their hands in the air.
“We set the stage so that we were able to engage them piecemeal,” said Navy Capt. Chris Bolt, who oversees Dubuque. “The bottom line is, imagine walking around the corner and finding 50 weapons pointed at your face.”
The largest difficulty that the force faced in securing the ship was reaching its 11 crew members, who had locked themselves in an engine room, Marines said. Fearing that the Marines were actually pirates, they escaped into two more locked, reinforced rooms after the troops cut a hole into the first one. A Marine in the force, Sgt. Max Chesmore, convinced them it was safe by pulling the U.S. flag off his cammies and putting it through a hole they cut in the third room.
The suspected pirates were all likely in their 20s and 30s, and some of them didn’t have shoes or shirts, Marines on board at the time of the raid said. After they gave up, their fear was obvious, said Capt. Alexander Martin, commander of the force recon platoon. They have been detained aboard the guided missile cruiser Princeton, Berger said, but officials would not immediately say where they may be taken next.
“As soon as the first stack of [Marines] made our way into the bridge, their hands were up, their weapons were down, they moved to their knees and they were compliant,” Martin said. “At that point, they were pretty scared. One guy actually defecated himself. … He sh-- his pants. I don’t know if that can go on the news or not, but that actually happened.”
Video here - http://www.navytimes.com/news/2010/09/marine-pirates-magellan-star-rescue-conway-090910w/
Posted : Friday Sep 10, 2010 10:40:09 EDT
The calls for help came about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday: The crew of the Magellan Star, a German-owned shipping vessel in the Gulf of Aden, needed help after it was boarded by armed Somali pirates about 85 miles off the coast of Yemen.
The resulting operation will likely be a feather in the cap of the Marine Corps and its force reconnaissance community for years to come.
After a day of deliberations that reached senior White House and Pentagon officials, Marines with 2nd Platoon, Force Reconnaissance Company, out of Camp Pendleton, Calif., launched a daring early morning raid known as a VBSS, or visit-board-search-seize. Pushing off from the amphibious transport dock Dubuque at dawn Thursday, they stormed the ship without a shot being fired, taking nine suspected pirates prisoner, Marine officials said.
The mission, overseen by Pendleton’s 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, is one of the first high-profile operations for force recon Marines in years. It also could affect the outcome of a two-year assessment the Corps is conducting to determine how the service should storm ships in the future without special operators from Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, which has concentrated its efforts in Afghanistan, Commandant Gen. James Conway said in an interview Thursday.
“When we lost our MARSOC Marines to shipboard life … we had a reduction in terms of our special operations capabilities aboard ships,” Conway said. “So, we’ve been examining different concepts off both coasts, and it was a West Coast force reconnaissance capability that just conducted this successful operation.”
As a result of that success, the commandant said the Corps will likely continue deploying MEUs with force reconnaissance platoons, which are not considered spec-op units but are capable of conducting some spec-op tasks. Gen. James Mattis, head of U.S. Central Command, should be able to count on the consistent ship-boarding capability they offer at sea, even if it means the conventional reconnaissance capability of Marine expeditionary forces might be diminished, Conway said.
“We can’t call General Mattis and say, ‘OK, this six months you’ve got this West Coast capability that is force reconnaissance and probably a little more capable,’ ” he said. “I think we’re going to have to come to one consistent kind of capability you put out at sea, and I think we’re going to have to go to the higher order, even though it may be a little more painful in terms of the workup and possibly some degradation of the MEF commander’s reconnaissance capability.”
Col. David Coffman, who commands Pendleton’s 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, said he was thrilled to hear about the raid’s success. It validates the need for VBSS capabilities within MEUs, he said.
“We don’t like a fair fight,” said Coffman, who begins training his unit this month for a future deployment. “You bring a gun to a knife fight.”
A coordinated effort
While force reconnaissance conducted the boarding of Magellan Star, the operation involved numerous units, many of which fall under the 15th MEU. They include a battalion landing team headed by Pendleton’s 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, which oversaw the mission and provided snipers in over-watch positions. Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 165 (reinforced), out of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif., provided Huey and Cobra gunship helicopters for aerial surveillance and support.
Officials with the Navy’s 5th Fleet, based out of Bahrain, said 24 Marines were involved in the initial raid. Marine officials did not confirm those numbers, but photographs released by the military show about that many troops floating from Dubuque to Magellan Star on what appears to be inflatable rigid hull boats commonly used by Navy SEALs.
Brig. Gen. David Berger, director of operations at Marine Corps headquarters, said officials at the Pentagon, State Department and White House began discussing options by midday Wednesday. The Marines were viewed as an option because they were in the vicinity while traveling toward Jordan, where they planned to train with Jordanian troops, he said.
While the Dubuque traveled through the area, however, it fell under the control of Combined Joint Task Force 151, the counter-piracy force that has fought pirates off the coast of Somalia since January 2009. The first ship to respond to the Magellan Star’s distress calls was the task force’s flag ship, the Turkish vessel TCG Gokceada. The Dubuque and the Navy cruiser Princeton responded not long after, 5th Fleet officials said.
The alleged pirates showed hostile intention toward the Dubuque as it drew near, said Lt. Col. J.R. Clearfield, commander of BLT 1/4. They repeatedly pointed their weapons at the Dubuque and said in radio communications that they would not surrender and planned to demand money from the Magellan Star’s owner, he said.
When the Marines boarded the ship, however, the suspected pirates changed their tune. Faced with overwhelming firepower, they gave up relatively easily, with several of them putting their hands in the air.
“We set the stage so that we were able to engage them piecemeal,” said Navy Capt. Chris Bolt, who oversees Dubuque. “The bottom line is, imagine walking around the corner and finding 50 weapons pointed at your face.”
The largest difficulty that the force faced in securing the ship was reaching its 11 crew members, who had locked themselves in an engine room, Marines said. Fearing that the Marines were actually pirates, they escaped into two more locked, reinforced rooms after the troops cut a hole into the first one. A Marine in the force, Sgt. Max Chesmore, convinced them it was safe by pulling the U.S. flag off his cammies and putting it through a hole they cut in the third room.
The suspected pirates were all likely in their 20s and 30s, and some of them didn’t have shoes or shirts, Marines on board at the time of the raid said. After they gave up, their fear was obvious, said Capt. Alexander Martin, commander of the force recon platoon. They have been detained aboard the guided missile cruiser Princeton, Berger said, but officials would not immediately say where they may be taken next.
“As soon as the first stack of [Marines] made our way into the bridge, their hands were up, their weapons were down, they moved to their knees and they were compliant,” Martin said. “At that point, they were pretty scared. One guy actually defecated himself. … He sh-- his pants. I don’t know if that can go on the news or not, but that actually happened.”
Video here - http://www.navytimes.com/news/2010/09/marine-pirates-magellan-star-rescue-conway-090910w/