GO NAVY – Bravo Zulu!
American hostage in Somalia rescued by US Navy SEALs in overnight raid
In a daring nighttime raid Tuesday, U.S. Navy SEALs rescued two hostages, including one American, who were being held by kidnappers in Somalia, U.S. officials tell NBC News.
American Jessica Buchanan, 32, and a 60-year-old Dane, Poul Thisted, were working for a Danish relief organization in northern Somalia when they were kidnapped last October. U.S. officials described their kidnappers as heavily armed common criminals with no known ties to any organized militant group.
According to the U.S. officials, two teams of Navy SEALs landed by helicopter near the compound where the two hostages were being held. As the SEALS approached the compound on foot gunfire broke out, the U.S. officials said, and several of the militants were reportedly killed. There is no word that any of the Americans were wounded.
Not much worth adding. Bad guys down. Innocents saved.
Oh yeah, for you Army types BZ:
This is a naval signal, conveyed by flaghoist or voice radio, meaning “well done”; it has also passed into the spoken and written vocabulary. It can be combined with the “negative” signal, spoken or written NEGAT, to say “NEGAT Bravo Zulu,” or “not well done.”
Category: Geezer Alert!, Navy
Delta has to be just fucking apoplectic by this point.
NSOM #1: Yeah, I thought about discussing that, but our host is an Army guy.
I sincerely hope that there are many Somali crooks resting in pieces today. . .
The SEALs ride SOAR(Army)birds to get the j o b done, though both unit’s appear to have executed the mission as they should. Bravo Zulu!
The simple solution to the Somalia pirate problem is to send the seals in to one harbor at a time and sink all the boats. You pirate one boat – you lose another harbors boats.
Conflicting reports say they parachuted in, which seems highly unlikley, but certainly within their skill set.
Joe “Bite me” Biden was montoring from the situation room last night. I am so glad he was on top of it. /sarcasm off.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/vice-president-biden-obama-ordered-rescue-operation-because-120153180–abc-news.html
Yeah, good job Joe, good job, Leon. WTF did those two actually do? Besides watch TV?
Actually, that’s about it, UpNorth. I can just see them acting like the typical NFL fan, yelling at the TV like it’s Super Bowl or something to throw this play or shoot that guy.
Guys … The SEALS travel by way of the USA Nightstalkers, they are often (and I am sure in this case) supported by USAF Para Res and Combat Controllers, the US SPEC OPS community is deep with support and it comes from all branches. If the SEALs of DEV GRU pulled this off, then we owe a larger BRAVO ZULU to all the men and women SOCOM!
re #9
I know, rah-rah, go team and all that.
I wasn’t trying to make a big deal of it or derail the comments section with silliness but the (very real) politics behind all this stuff was the first thing to pop into my head. My very incomplete and largely academic understanding is that there’s a lot of hate and discontent over at Fort Bragg right now and I suspect DEVGRU taking another mission historically performed by Delta will ruffle some feathers.
The future portends less money and less missions all around, we’re at a high watermark for both right now. Political capital within the Pentagon bureaucracy and demonstrated real world capability are what high price, strategic organizations within SOCOM use to secure more money and missions. With SOCOM’s upper command staff increasingly dominated by SEAL Admirals and DEVGRU and the Teams picking up more and more of the high profile trigger pulling missions there’s some serious worry within the Army.
That’s what my initial and stunted comment was all about.
How long do you think it will be before some WH idiot (read Joe Bite-Me) will disclose all the details?
To everyone involved in the operation, well do!
#10 I agree and frankly this extends beyond just SOCOM. Many of the USMC’s classic functions are increasingly being picked up by the SEALS as well. This goes to a larger point though and that is the increasing special-ops-ising(new word) of non exclusive special operations tasks. I think our regular ground forces and the US in general are in for some hurt in the next few years. The over reliance on operators is leading to a false narrative about their capabilities and what the composition of what our ground forces should be.