Interesting day with an A-Team

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Seacowboys, May 17, 2012.


  1. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    I left our dock at 22:00 last night and sailed to Pensacola where we picked up a Army Special Forces Operational Team Alpha that were dressed like oil-patch trash. We put them in our focscle and set off shore for four hours with them thinking they would be doing some free diving exercises off an oil rig. Once on location, a Coast Guard Cutter armed with a pair of Ma Deuce and a RHIB crash boat boarded us with automatic weapons, hand-guns, and short shot-guns. My crew and I were flex-cuffed and put back into the wheelhouse under guard then the A-Team was brought out under gun point and flex-cuffed and made to sit on the main deck in the sun for several hours while the Coasties tested suspected drugs that they had found on board. The A-Teams Cover story was that they were a rig crew being rotated back ashore. The Coasties didn't buy it and they stay aboard us all the way back to Mobile USCG Station where each of the A-Team were taken off in groups of 3 and sent by car to public areas where they would intermingle with the civilian population and try to reestablish contact with their other team members and make their way back to Elgin Air Force Base without being detected.
    The USCG were told that we were carrying drugs and weapons so they were loaded for bear.Only their Commander knew it was an exercise. The Alpha-Team did not know what was going on either.
    When they released my crew from the flex-cuffs, I had already slipped mine off. The guard caught me pushing the hair out of my face in the corner of his vision and turned quickly but my hands were back behind me and he convinced himself he hadn't seen anything. When they released us, I handed him my cuffs and told him two things; when restraining people don't be bashful about pulling them tight and crossing them and second, trust your first impression. I told him that he saw me move but didn't register it as a threat.They also missed my keltec in a wallet holster thinking it was my billfold after i told them where my Spyderco was. They were young, but their Senior Chief was directly behind me when I slipped the cuffs off and he didn't see it either. I took a lot of videos and emailed them to RH while this was going on so maybe she can figure out how to post them? Anyway, it was a pretty interesting last 24 hours. These Secret Squirrel Missions are fun.
    OPERATIONAL DETACHMENT ALPHA
    Going unnoticed during their missions is critical for Green Berets. It's important for them to be organized in small, highly trained groups. This way they get things done in a quick and effective manner.

    Special Forces groups are organized in small teams of 12 men — a.k.a. Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA). A typical Green Berets Team structure usually consists of two each of the following: Weapons Sergeants, Communications Sergeants, Medical Sergeants and Engineering Sergeants. A Commander, Assistant Commander (Warrant Officer), Operations/Intelligence Sergeant and Non-Commissioned Officer In Charge (NCOIC) complete the team. These teams can change according to the type of mission.

    Each Soldier in an ODA is specially trained and cross-trained in different disciplines.
     
  2. UGRev

    UGRev Get on with it!

    very cool..
     
  3. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    Very fun, I imagine. Not the Lana, I guess?
     
  4. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    Actually an identical boat to the Lana, the Jimmie G. I can't figure out how to get the video clips from my iphone to the monkey, they ship in .mov
     
  5. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    Here are three stills that I had on my iphone
    Cutter on watch.JPG Coasties on the main deck.JPG Drugs.JPG
     
  6. RightHand

    RightHand Been There, Done That RIP 4/15/21 Moderator Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    Not having too much luck attaching the video. I'll ask melbo about it
     
  7. melbo

    melbo Hunter Gatherer Administrator Founding Member

    iPhone 4 > upload to Youtube?
     
  8. melbo

    melbo Hunter Gatherer Administrator Founding Member

    Like this

    ImageUploadedByTapatalk1337309085.952684.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    ImageUploadedByTapatalk1337309085.952684.
     
  9. RightHand

    RightHand Been There, Done That RIP 4/15/21 Moderator Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    I have it in both .mov and .wmv if that helps
     
  10. melbo

    melbo Hunter Gatherer Administrator Founding Member

    There's not really any good way you can send it to me. Sea (or you) need to get it on Youtube or Vimeo and then link it here.
     
  11. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    my phone is dead but I'll put one on my Youtube channel tomorrow and link it.
     
    ghrit, RightHand, melbo and 1 other person like this.
  12. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

  13. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    Following up on this, the Army came by last week and presented us with a nice framed print with a brass plaque and gave me and all our crew each a Challenge coin for helping out on their training mission.
     
  14. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    Coin2.JPG Print.JPG Coin.JPG
     
    Gator 45/70 and ghrit like this.
  15. Warscent

    Warscent Corus corax

    Awsome! 7th are good people.
     
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