Pirates menace fleet oiler off Somalia

[unhappycamper]

The Military Sealift Command fleet replenishment oiler John Lenthall steams alongside the guided-missile destroyer Bulkeley as the ships of the Nassau Expeditionary Strike Group transit westward across the Atlantic Ocean after a deployment to the U.S. 5th and 6th Fleet areas of responsibility.


Pirates menace fleet oiler off Somalia
By Andrew Scutro - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Sep 27, 2008 7:27:22 EDT

NORFOLK, Va. — Two unmarked and unflagged skiffs raced toward a 41,000-ton U.S. fleet oiler in the pirate-infested waters off Somalia on Wednesday, a Navy spokesman said. A security team embarked on the oiler fired on the boats, forcing them to peel away in the latest incidence of pirate activity in the region.

The two boats approached the John Lenthall, a Kaiser-class Military Sealift Command civilian-manned strike group replenishment ship that operates out of Naval Station Norfolk.

“They came up on the ship about 300 to 400 yards,” said Lt. Nate Christensen, a spokesman for 5th Fleet in Bahrain. “These skiffs came out and approached after bridge-to-bridge calls and loud hailers and flares.”

When the skiffs, approaching from behind, failed to back off, sailors from an embarked security detachment fired warning shots. The suspected pirates raced away.

The incident comes one month into stepped-up efforts by coalition naval forces to enforce order in a specified patrol zone in the Gulf of Aden, called the Maritime Security Patrol Area.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/09/navy_pirates_092708w/%2e