Thursday, July 08, 2010
Navy SEALs to the rescue
There was a tragic accident on the Delaware River in Philadelphia yesterday, when a "duck boat" tour lost power on the water, and ten minutes later a barge collided with the tourist boat, capsizing and sinking it. Two people are presumed drowned.
The positive news for the 35 people who survived is that, by coincidence, a group of U.S. Navy Special Operations personnel happened to be nearby:
Sailors from Virginia Beach-based Special Boat Team 20 helped rescue nine people Wednesday from an overturned tourist boat in the Delaware River.One can only speculate on the litigation that will result from the accident and the loss of life of two young tourists from Hungary. It could have been worse had it not been for the proximity of U.S. Navy personnel who are particularly adept at quickly dealing with complex and urgent situations, and of course the Coast Guard and Philadelphia Police arrived shortly after the Navy and were central to the rescue effort. I certainly hope that nobody (cough, ACLU, cough) questions the legality or legitimacy of SEALs responding to a civilian emergency in U.S. waters -- it is not as if the team was acting in a law enforcement capacity, so it is difficult to see how Posse Comitatus would apply.
According to Philadelphia police, one of the popular "duck boat" vessels was struck by a barge and capsized, throwing 35 passengers and two crewmembers in the water.
Twelve Special Warfare Boat Operators who happened to be nearby at Penn's Landing immediately responded to a radio distress call and sped to the scene in small boats to recover people in the river.
"We were the first responders," said 25-year-old Garrett Rodriguez, a Special Boat Operator 1st Class from Maui, HI. "Some of us jumped out and started grabbing people. They were just exhausted, in shock."
Having SEALs nearby when you happen run into trouble on the water is definitely a "Thank you, God," moment.
3 Comments:
By 
Mark Tempest, at
Fri Jul 09, 12:14:00 AM:
It was good that SBT-20 sailors were on scene.
Just a minor qualification. Special Boat Teams are Special Warfare guys, but they are different from SEALS.
Special Boat Teams are highly trained boat operators who support other SPECWAR operators.
See here.
In fact, given their boat skills, it may have been more of a blessing that SBT-20 was there.
Well done, sailors!
By 
, at
Fri Jul 09, 10:15:00 AM:
So why didn't the Seals wait for Obama to send tort lawyers 1st, then wait until they went through the Coast Guard to count life jackets, allow the EPA to determine the potential envirnomental impact, then 4 layers of bureaucracy before responding?
By , at
Fri Jul 09, 06:11:00 PM:
@ Anonymous, at Fri Jul 09, 10:15:00 AM
Because this didn't happen in red state.
