miles, an area four times the size
of Texas. Not only sailors but also
Marines and Coast Guard personnel
are stationed on task force vessels.
McKnight has found safe passage
a good bet through a channel his
ships patrol and encourages vessels
to take that protected route. “We
offer as much protection as we pos-
sibly can in that corridor … [and it]
seems to be working,” McKnight
said during a long-distance defense
bloggers’ roundtable. Though the
ships change regularly, CTF 151 has
included the USS Vella Gulf (CG-
72), the USS Mahan (DDG-72), the
Pirates in small boats were able dents grew to 263 and reached 293 USS San Antonio (LPD-17), and the
to hijack the cargo ship MV Faina in in 2008. In the Gulf of Aden alone HMS Portland (F-79).
September 2008. reported encounters skyrocketed CTF 151 is not patrolling alone. No
from 13 to 98 between 2007 and fewer than 16 nations have commit-
care of the problem. “To the shores 2008 — a sevenfold increase. ted more than 30 ships to counter-
of Tripoli,” in the famous fi rst lines Somewhere in the Gulf of Aden, piracy efforts [CONTINUES ON PAGE 72]
of the Marines’ Hymn, refers to the Combined Task Force (CTF) 151 is on
1805 storming of a pirate stronghold patrol. CTF 151, a part of U.S. Naval Team members from USS Vella
in what is now Libya’s capital. One Forces Central Command, is a multi- Gulf, then-flagship of the antipiracy
legend holds that Marines acquired national force charged with counter- task force, apprehend suspected pi-
their nickname “leatherneck” during piracy operations in one of the rates in the Gulf of Aden in February.
this period, from the leather collars world’s busiest
they wore to protect them from the shipping areas. Not
potentially fatal slash of a pirate’s only does it police
cutlass. The U.S. was forced to return the waters between
and fi ght the Second Barbary War in Somalia and Yemen,
1815, underscoring the challenges na- but it also is re-
tions face in defeating piracy. sponsible for
the Arabian Sea,
Here and now Red Sea, and
Fast-forward to the 21st century. Indian Ocean.
Piracy might no longer be state-spon- Established
sored, but this law-enforcement chal- Jan. 8, CTF 151 fi rst
lenge fl ourishes around failed states was commanded
like Somalia. The International Mari- by Rear Adm.
time Bureau tracks piracy worldwide Terry McKnight,
and regularly details locations and who also heads
circumstances surrounding incidents. the Navy’s Expe-
Cases of piracy around the globe ditionary Strike
went through a period of relative Group 2, home-
decline during the fi rst part of the ported in Norfolk,
decade, reaching a low in 2006 at Va. Counterpiracy
239 incidents, down from 445 in operations mean,
2003. Much of the drop was expe- in part, that task
rienced in Southeast Asia and the force vessels cruise
Indian subcontinent. In 2007, inci- 1.1 million square
PHOTOS: RIGHT, MASS COMMUNICATIONS SPC. 2ND CLASS JULY 2009 MILITARY OFFICER 59
JASON R. ZALASKY, USN; ABOVE, USN
JJul_piracy.indd
59ul_piracy.indd 59 66/3/09 2:51:21 PM/3/09 2:51:21 PM
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