Bold Call for Obama, Even Bolder Call for Bainbridge Skipper

Military: “An Early Military Victory for Obama,” by Michael D. Shear, Washington Post, 13 April 2009

“Our authorities came directly from the president.  And the number one authority for incidents if we were going to respond was if the captain’s life was in immediate danger.”

That was the quote from Vice Admiral William Gortney, commander of the Navy’s 5^th Fleet, and responsible for maritime activity off the coast of Somalia.

According to the Post article, Obama escalated the rules of engagement (ROE’s) twice for military forces.  ROE’s govern what actions the military can, and can’t, undertake within the scope of an operation.

On Friday, Obama first authorized “appropriate force to save the life of the captain.”  On Saturday morning, he went further, granting authority to an “additional set of U.S. forces to engage in potential emergency actions.”

Essentially, with the escalation to the “additional set of U.S. forces” Obama gave the SEALs the green light to take action against the pirates.

It was a bold call by Obama, but I would argue that the even bolder decision came from the skipper of the USS Bainbridge, Commander Frank Castellano.

As the Bainbridge commanding officer, Castellano had the overall authority for the decision to allow the snipers to take the shots that killed the Somali pirates --no small decision giving the high stakes game that was playing out.

Having conducted sniper shoots aboard Navy ships, I can tell you that making three, simultaneous, precision head shots at the reported 100 feet was nothing short of amazing.  Even in calm waters, the Bainbridge would still have been “rolling,” not to mention the independent movement of the life boat, and the fact it was dusk.

While this situation had a happy ending, and has turned into a military victory for Obama, a slight twitch from Mother Nature and it could have been a drastically different outcome.

Kudos to Obama for giving the military reasonable ROE, to Castellano for trusting his SEALs, and to the SEALs for executing flawlessly.