American Sniper - Boekje Pienter

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A few times we worked with an Mk-V boat. The Mk-V is a special
operations craft that some people have compared to World War II–era
PT boats. The craft looks like an armored speedboat, and its job is to
get SEALs into harm’s way as quickly as possible. Built out of aluminum,
it can haul serious ass—the boats are said to hit sixty-five knots.
But what we liked about them were their flat decks behind the superstructure.
Ordinarily, we would load two Zodiacs back there. But since
the Zodiacs weren’t needed, the whole company would board from the
RHIBs and stretch out to grab some sleep until ships were spotted.
That beat leaning across the seat or twisting yourself around to rest on
the gunwale.
Taking down ships in the Gulf quickly became routine. We could
take dozens in a night. But our biggest takedown didn’t come off Iraq;
it was some fifteen hundred miles away, off the coast of Africa.
SCUDS
In late fall, a SEAL platoon in the Philippines snuck alongside a
freighter. From that point on, the North Korean ship was literally a
marked vessel.
The 3,500-ton freighter had an interesting history of transporting
items to and from North Korea. According to one rumor, she had
transported chemicals that could be used to create nerve weapons. In
this case, though, the ship’s papers declared that she was carrying
cement.
What she was really carrying were Scud missiles.
The ship was tracked around the Horn of Africa while the Bush
administration decided what to do about it. Finally, the President