I had posted this on my toy blog on August 4, 2009 (and it has already garnered 19,700 page views) but with the release and screening of the recent film "Captain Phillips", I think it's worth to bring it up again :) "Captain Phillips" is a 2013 American action thriller film directed by Paul Greengrass and starring Tom Hanks and Barkhad Abdi. The film tells how merchant mariner Captain Richard Phillips was taken hostage by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean during the Maersk Alabama hijacking in 2009 led by Abduwali Muse. The screenplay by Billy Ray is based upon the book, A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea (2010), by Richard Phillips with Stephan Talty.
The film covers more on the events that occur before the SEAL Team's arrival while my toy blog post was more centered on the men who had only one chance to get everything right the first time.
As published on August 4, 2009:
Reported in The Straits Times today: A five-day hostage drama involving US ship captain Richard Phillips ended on Sunday when US Navy SEALs shot dead three of the four Somali pirates. In a surprise night-time assault on Easter Sunday, US Navy SEAL snipers shot and killed the three pirates holding US cargo ship Captain Richard Phillips (the fourth pirate only survived because he wasn't on the boat), effectively ending a five-day hostage drama.
The US operation, personally approved by US President Barack Obama, had been carried out after negotiations with the three gunmen became heated. On Sunday evening, a split-second decision was taken for the snipers to shoot down the pirates. Vice-Adm Gortney said one of the pirates had pointed an AK-47 at the back of Capt Phillips, who was tied up and in imminent danger of being killed.
According to CNN, the navy SEAL snipers were brought in earlier by chopper and dropped into the ocean behind the USS Bainbridge warship, which had rushed to the hostages' rescue. Capt Phillips had surrendered himself to the pirates to safeguard his 19 crew members when the pirates hijacked his ship, the Maersk Alabama, last Wednesday.
From NavySEALs.com site, I found out that there are three types of sniper rifles the USN SEALs use. They might not have used all three for the kills but here are the three types of sniper rifles SEALs prefer, in 1/6 scale of course :) Scroll down to see the pictures