Thank You!

To the Officers and Enlisted personnel of the USS Bainbridge (DDG-96) for the rescue of Capt. Phillips of the MV Maersk Alabama, which was a U.S. flagged ship operating in international waters.

Of the four pirates involved in kidnapping Capt. Phillips, three were killed and one, unfortunately, was not, which brings me to something I have been thinking of since this piracy occurred.

The easiest method to deter this violence at sea is to allow the crew of these commercial vessels to be armed, and if that cannot be accomplished, hire armed security personnel to deal with these pirates, with shoot to kill orders. If that is allowed, you will see a drastic decline in piracy...it's as simple as that.

What angers me more then the issue of arming these vessels, is the current mentality of this Administration as viewing this as a criminal matter to be adjudicated in a U.S. court...this is absurd, which I can vouch safe to say, will allow this pirate full access to our justice system, and a team of lawyers defending this individual.

These pirates show no mercy and no quarter to their captives, why in the hell should we?

Bravo Zulu, my fellow Sailors!