Navy SEALs describe how boarding a ship is a team’s ‘sketchiest’ mission
Two Navy SEALs went missing during a Visit, Board, Search and Seizure action near Somalia. Former SEALs say those VBSS missions were always among their most dangerous.
BY MATT WHITE | PUBLISHED JAN 15, 2024 6:00 AM EST
A Navy SEAL who spent a dozen years in the elite combat units said the “sketchiest” training of his career was intercepting a ship and boarding it at night — the tactic at the heart of the mission from which two SEALs went missing Thursday when their team boarded a ship in the waters off of Somalia looking for Iranian weapons.
The high-risk tactic, known as Visit, Board, Search and Seizure, or VBSS, puts SEALS in a uniquely dangerous, exhausting and miserable spot, the veteran SEAL told Task & Purpose.
“It’s the sketchiest thing I did in the teams,” he said. “Everything is slippery, it’s dark, everything is moving, it’s bleep cold so you can’t feel shit.”
And a misstep at any moment could send a SEAL into the black ocean below.
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/navy-seals-sketchy-vbss/