re: #172 capitalist piglet

The U.S.S. Bainbridge was there, as I recall - but I thought I also heard that the snipers were dropped in somehow, and I don’t know when.

So much information flying. This story has been morphing all day.

Here’s my question: if you see that the hostage is no longer in the pirated vessel, does it really take precision sniper fire to suppress the pirates’ fire at the hostage? Wouldn’t raking the vessel with machine-gun fire or firing a small shell over it do the trick?

That is, if the hostage jumped out on the side of the vessel toward the Navy ship and presuming that the ship had the pirated vessel under constant surveillance. Or presuming the Navy ship had deployed a surveillance capability to detect the hostage jumping overboard no matter from which side of the vessel.

And, of course, presuming that the rules of engagement permitted firing on the pirates even if the hostage was no longer directly under their control.

So many questions….