Richard Phillips, Captain of the Maersk ship Alabama, flying an American flag out of the port of Norfolk, VA is home safe today.
Not because of the fact that we’re the biggest bully on the block and everyone does what we say to do. No, I think we’ve all come to the conclusion that doesn’t work anymore………
Nope, it’s simply because there are those in service to our country that are above and beyond what most of us can even imagine.
Everyone is talking this morning at work about the amazing rescue of this ship Captain. Captain Phillips was very brave and deserves much credit for saving his own crew.
He upheld the long tradition of the sea and took total responsibility for his men in a very bad situation.
For at sea, tradition is everything.
Without it, bad things will always happen. The importance of this is noted because our most ancient of laws, from over a thousand years ago, deal with what happens on the high seas.
But we have other traditions as well.
Such as the US Government not allowing US citizens or US interests to be assaulted by foreigners.
Most of these things that happen, well, you will never hear of. The United States will send in men to fix these type situations each and every day. People are rescued and retribution is taken almost every day that goes by and we never hear of it.
The situation with the ship Captain was big news so everyone heard for a change.
And once again, we all should stand in awe of our soldiers.
Three Navy SEALS shot three pirates in the head from a boat bobbing on the water. The pirates were in another boat bobbing on the water. Two boats bobbing in the rough sea.
They were all shot at the same time. The Captain didn’t even hear the shots until after the pirates fell dead at his feet and he said he only heard one shot.
For those of you that know nothing of marksmanship or shooting – this may not seem to be a big deal. But for those of us that love to point a gun and try to shoot something 30 feet away just for funzies, this is a really big damn thing.
Those shots would be simply unthinkable for me.
That strategy would never even come into question because in my mind it can’t be done.
But it was done.
And it was done with extreme prejudice and with supreme skill.
Then they sunk back into the shadows from whence they came…………………
There will be press conferences galore about his incident – but there will be no SEALS standing in front of the cameras taking their 5 minutes of fame and turning that into a lucrative speaking tour.
Nope, you will never see them and you will never know who they were.
Here is the SEAL’s Creed. Read it and let it sink in for a moment:
"My loyalty to country and team is beyond reproach. I humbly serve as a guardian to my fellow Americans, always ready to defend those who are unable to defend themselves. I do not advertise the nature of my work, nor seek recognition for my actions. I voluntarily accept the inherent hazards of my profession, placing the welfare and security of others before my own. I serve with honor on and off the battlefield. The ability to control my emotions and my actions, regardless of circumstance, sets me apart from other men. ... In the absence of orders I will take charge, lead my teammates and accomplish the mission. ... I will never quit. I persevere and thrive on adversity. My nation expects me to be physically harder and mentally stronger than my enemies. If knocked down, I will get back up, every time. I will draw on every remaining ounce of strength to protect my teammates and to accomplish our mission. I am never out of the fight."
I won’t bore you with the process of how the SEAL’s come to be picked or what kind of training they go through, because just like the nature of the shots they took – our plain old civilian minds simply can’t grasp what happens and how they end up so well trained.
But I will reveal one thing my father once told me when I posed the question to him………
Now my father was a Green Beret. He was a bad, badass man. Died with seven bullet holes in him and each line on his face and every bone reset in the field attested to the life he led. He was in the first classes that went through the training after President Kennedy started up the special warfare section of our military.
He had to survive being dropped of into the water from a chopper on the Caribbean side of the Central American peninsula and having only his Rambo knife (long before there was a Rambo) – he had to make it to the Pacific side of the peninsula.
Through the jungles of Panama and all that goes with it. He still suffered from the results of malaria for the rest of his life and the scars from the leeches never went away.
My father fought in many wars and skirmishes over the years. Some for the US government and some for “other” interests.
It was from that context that I asked the question that every 10 year old boys has to know: “Dad, are Green Berets tougher than SEAL’s”?
He pondered that for a second and said, “Son, SEAL’s are trained very differently from us Green Berets. Their mission is to quickly and quietly kill the enemy in specific situations while we are sent in to win the hearts and minds of our enemy while setting up forward bases and fighting the enemy as counter-insurgents. Therefore they are assassins while we are cross trained as diplomats, educators as well as highly trained soldiers. I’m sure that individually it would vary as to who was tougher on a personal level – but as a general rule, there has never been a SEAL that I have known that I would care to get into a scrap with..”
And my father was a very smart man.
So today, thank a soldier and thank God that we live in the United States of America.
