How Navy SEALs Saved Journalists From Being Obliterated in Somalia
by John Cote
“Water cascades down the front of the Navy SEAL’s diver mask as he breaks the surface of the dark coastal waters just off the coast of Mogadishu, Somalia. It’s December 9, 1992, and this SEAL is the point man of a six-man beach recce team. He and his teammates swim towards the beach just below the International Airport in Mogadishu.
The moon is full, shining brightly in the pitch-black sky like a bright spotlight. It’s a short low crawl to the beachhead. Just as the team begins to gather together on the beach a wall of light and flashbulbs going off comes over the crest of the dune. A hoard of news cameramen descends upon the SEALs with cameras filming and reporters bending over to ask them how they feel about invading a foreign country.”
It is said that the press corps had been camped out on the Airport grounds for most of the night. Hundreds of journalists, cameramen, and support staff had descended on the Somali coast in hopes of catching the impending invasion live.
Normally the location and time of such a military operation is a closely-held secret. How is it possible then this hoard of journalists could know where the evasion landing would take place? As my father, a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy and veteran of World War II used to tell me “loose lips sink ships.” Well, that’s exactly what happened in this case.
https://sofrep.com/news/how-navy-seals-saved-journalists-from-being-obliterated-in-somalia/
