Navy SEALs describe how boarding a ship is a team’s ‘sketchiest’ mission

[rangerrebew]

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/

[rangerrebew]

Back in the day, when the military could still visit Hong Kong, aircraft carriers were too big to get into port.  They had to anchor out in the bay and small boats would come out to pick up people on liberty.  A small portable dock was brought along side, and you had to take a ladder down to it to get the boat.  Even that was dangerous as we once had a couple guys go in the drink trying to get from the dock to the ship.  Of course, drink may have had something to do with their going in the drink.