On April 12, 2009 Navy SEAL snipers shot three Somali pirates from the USS Bainbridge’s fantail and rescued Captain Phillips from a lifeboat after a three-day standoff. We got to tour the Bainbridge on Saturday (5-7-16). How a Somali pirate could face a bad ass boat like this is beyond me.
On the bow of the USS Bainbridge in Port Everglades.
Jeff Lyon, starboard chopper gunner, reporting for duty.
There’s not much room for error when landing a bird that big on the Bainbridge’s stern.
This radar-guided gun is stern mounted and can shoot 78 rounds per second. You have to have a big boat just to carry that many bullets.
It seems that, “The bigger the boat, the smaller the steering wheel.” I was once on an aircraft carrier that had a wheel smaller than a fist. I’d still like to drive this monster.
The captain’s seat was plenty comfy and stress-free while at the dock.
This is the view from the captain’s seat. The bow on a 510-foot boat is far enough out there to make docking in a tight spot tricky. That’s a 5-inch cannon in case anyone wants to give the captain a hard time.
Your eyes have not gone bad. We had a great view of the Air Show from our warship.
The only clouds in the sky were created by jet smoke as pilots strutted their stuff.
“We come in peace, but don’t piss us off!” Go Navy!