WASHINGTON (AP) — Two U.S. Navy SEALs are missing after conducting a nighttime boarding mission Thursday off the coast of Somalia, according to three U.S. officials.

The SEALs were on an interdiction mission, climbing up a vessel when one got knocked off by high waves. Under their protocol, when one SEAL is overtaken the next jumps in after them.

Both SEALs are still missing. A search and rescue mission is underway and the waters in the Gulf of Aden, where they were operating, are warm, two of the U.S. officials said.

The U.S. Navy has conducted regular interdiction missions, where they have intercepted weapons on ships that were bound for Houthi-controlled Yemen.

    • CloutAtlas [he/him]
      hexbear
      68
      5 months ago

      Let's look at the track record:

      Caligula vs Poseidon : Poseidon W

      Billionaires in submarine vs Poseidon : Poseidon W

      European yatchs vs Poseidon : Poseidon W

      2 Yankistani SEALs Poseidon? You better believe Poseidon W

      • @GinAndJucheM
        hexbear
        53
        5 months ago

        I don’t get why it’s always sky gods taking the top spot, ocean gods are scary mf’ers

        • GnastyGnuts [he/him]
          hexbear
          29
          5 months ago

          Sky Gods: Here's some lightning every now and then, maybe a few will hit some people occasionally, I dunno, whatever. Be scared by the thunder I guess.

          Ocean God: DROWNING DROWNING DROWNING constant DROWNING crushing pressure FISH PISS

        • Egon [they/them]
          hexbear
          27
          5 months ago

          It's cause ocean gods make sense while sky gods are fickle.
          "Why'd jaesop drown?" "He went out in a storm, angered the ocean".
          "Why'd Aesop get struck by lightning?" "Shit I dunno, better sacrifice a deer or something."

          • @GinAndJucheM
            hexbear
            20
            5 months ago

            This is too logical a response to be true, but it makes a lot of sense.

            Also: imagining a guy who’s super devout to the forest god and goes to pray during a storm. Gets hit by lightning. “Ah shit, we better not pray to the forest god during a storm or sky god gets hella jealous”.

            • CloutAtlas [he/him]
              hexbear
              6
              5 months ago

              Also I'd say before we invented masonry and agriculture, the sky gods dictates whether you lived or died.

              You're stalking prey and the sky gods shift the winds, and your pre-soap body odour gets picked up by the antelope and it runs off? You might be eating lean for the next couple days. Hell, we weren't apex predators, the shift in wind might bring your scent to a pack of wolves or a pride of lions.

              A sudden storm knocks down a fence and your goats escape? You haven't paid your dues to the sky gods, remember to sacrifice one next time, if you survive the winter without your herd.

              You're arrogant enough to think the sky gods can't harm you because you built a hut of wood and clay? The sky gods will send a Hailstone the size of a large rodent through your thatched roof or strike your hut with lightning.

              The sky gods send a drought? Your water holes dry up, you can't find enough plants to forage and the rivers are crowded with thirsty predators and ambushing crocodiles.

        • Mindfury [he/him]
          hexbear
          24
          5 months ago

          because the sky gods leave survivors

          dead men tell no tales

          • @GinAndJucheM
            hexbear
            18
            edit-2
            5 months ago

            That’s a good theory, but I’m toying with the notion that it’s because humans take the ocean for granted since we can’t live there but we always have the sky above us to be reminded of (ignoring those based dudes who love underground, strike the earth)

        • silent_water [she/her]
          hexbear
          13
          5 months ago

          in one of my favorite book series, Malazan, Mael - the elder god of the sea - spends all day chilling as the manservant of a socialist because 1. he's a funny dude and 2. the other gods are boring. he only takes time off to go wreck some ships or nip the meddling of other gods in the local economy/politics in the bud because his "master" is busy destroying the local currency.

          • @GinAndJucheM
            hexbear
            7
            edit-2
            5 months ago

            Talk about doing it for love of the game, he’s even drowning the local government in debt.

            Those books rule, I tried binging them and burned out somewhere around toll the hounds.

  • CloutAtlas [he/him]
    hexbear
    77
    5 months ago

    The SEALs were on an interdiction mission, climbing up a vessel when one got knocked off by high waves. Under their protocol, when one SEAL is overtaken the next jumps in after them.

    Wholesome! The US navy has enshrined a suicide pact!

    • Egon [they/them]
      hexbear
      37
      5 months ago

      Lmao that's the dumbest fucking doctrine to instill into grunts. "Yeah if we have a MOB you gotta go overboard too, definitely the best course of action. Under no circumstances should you stay on the vessel and use it to search for your partner, we'd rather have to find both of you"

    • silent_water [she/her]
      hexbear
      31
      5 months ago

      pity they don't follow this protocol to it's logical conclusion and just all jump into the ocean, one after another

  • CloutAtlas [he/him]
    hexbear
    75
    5 months ago

    Alternative headline: Houthi Hydromancers conjure rogue wave, why congress should approve additional military strikes against Yemeni civilians.

  • @GinAndJucheM
    hexbear
    63
    5 months ago
    1. Get rekt, literal skill issue

    2. How fucking indoctrinated do you have to be to intentionally jump into the ocean with no hope of rescue just to drown alongside the guy who didn’t know how to hold onto the boat properly?

  • Awoo [she/her]
    hexbear
    57
    5 months ago

    Under their protocol, when one SEAL is overtaken the next jumps in after them.

    y tho

    • D61 [any]
      hexbear
      9
      5 months ago

      A single SEAL is easier to kill/capture than a team as well as a general "leave nobody (or no body) behind" mantra.

      • Awoo [she/her]
        hexbear
        6
        5 months ago

        Yeah but this isn't "leave nobody behind" it's literally ritualistic suicide if a squadmate dies. It's die together suicide nonsense.

        There really is some fucked up stuff beneath this.

        • D61 [any]
          hexbear
          2
          5 months ago

          I mean, so would a team of two going in, immediately losing 50% of the team and the remaining member trying to clear a boat/ship by themself.

            • sir_this_is_a_wendys [he/him]
              hexbear
              2
              5 months ago

              SEALS usually deal with more sensitive operations, maybe it's a cynical policy to 'tie up lose ends' on missions that fail?

    • WayeeCool [comrade/them]
      hexagon
      hexbear
      57
      5 months ago

      Funniest part is they got owned by either Somali fishermen or Houthi fighters. Also the US are such fkn hypocrites to scream about Yemenis interdictions off the coast of Yemen when the US has been covertly doing it in the same area for the past decade. This isn't US waters, ridiculous. The US only ever talks about it when their SEAL teams get owned and there are too many questions.

      • supafuzz [comrade/them]
        hexbear
        38
        5 months ago

        it seems like they just got owned by the sea

        the one thing they're really supposed to be good at

  • fox [comrade/them]
    hexbear
    53
    5 months ago

    Hey quick Q, why were there US Navy seals that far from the US?

    • ziggurter [he/him, comrade/them]
      hexbear
      8
      5 months ago

      It's good not to be brainwashed enough to sell your soul and do literally anything the fucking U.S. government tells you to do, it turns out.

  • Evilphd666 [he/him, comrade/them]
    hexbear
    40
    5 months ago

    Weapons on ships boud for Yemen...?

    But I thought Iran controlled the Houthis. What is this way off the coast of Somalia in their disputed maritime border with Kenya? Seems a bit out of way for a shipment from Iran.

    Cover up the unspoken mercenary war we've been funding and arming for the last decade that no one talks about blame Iran without mentioning because we already programed people to associate Houtis with Iran.

    Also we hope you all forgot about that 7 countries in 5 years memo from the Project for a New American Century 9/11 oopsie daisy thing that included Somalia.

    Archive beyond the paywall -

    In Kenya, soldiers traumatized by the U.S.-backed war in Somalia often face discipline instead of treatment cw shhh war PTSD

    In the U.S.-backed war against the militant group al-Shabab in Somalia, Americans wage their battles mostly from the air, with drones.

    On the ground, at sweltering checkpoints and in dusty trenches across Somalia’s southernmost states, soldiers from neighboring Kenya do almost all the fighting.

    One of them was Christopher Katitu, a low-ranking grunt with the Kenya Defence Forces, or KDF, who spent two years manning a mounted machine gun from a trench in Kismayo, a port city shattered by street-to-street skirmishes over territory. Then, when al-Shabab killed almost 150 students at a university just across the border in Garissa, Kenya, Katitu was sent to the edges of the tense city to guard a highway checkpoint day and night.

    A kind of pressure was building up in his brain, one he could not quite place. It was not just the war — money problems were intensifying at home, too, and his wife was angry with him. Through almost a decade in the army, he had never seen a counselor.

    On a short leave home from Garissa, Katitu had a mental breakdown. But instead of being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder, he was jailed and court-martialed when he tried to rejoin his battalion.

    Since Kenya joined the war in Somalia in 2011, the United States has given its government more than half a billion dollars in security assistance.

  • Mokey [none/use name]
    hexbear
    39
    5 months ago

    Every person who has talked to me about a SEAL theyve known describes the worst sociopath imaginable.

      • Tunnelvision [they/them]
        hexbear
        22
        5 months ago

        Not the person you responded to, but YouTube has a ton of ex Special operations guys talking about their experiences. One navy seal I watched talked about his experience staring into the eyes of absolute evil. Since he referred to this enemy combatant as evil you would imagine it must be some hardcore insurgent veteran with years of combat experience right? Nope, it’s a 14 year old kid.

      • Mokey [none/use name]
        hexbear
        11
        edit-2
        5 months ago

        Sorry, I'm not a good story teller and I don't want to make up details on stuff that happened a long time ago.

        I'm just remembering vibes on a second-hand account. I most vividly remember this woman who married/dating a SEAL saying they went swimming somewhere and he just disappeared while swimming. She started panicking and was searching for him for a couple minutes until he emerged behind her and scared her? Can't remember the end of that one, but I do remember thinking that this dude was a fucking creep despite her being pretty nonchalant about it. She mentioned his ego a lot.

        One of the people I've met directly a few years back was a Green Beret who told us at length how he killed socialists in central america during the 80's and how he felt like everyone hated him after wards in College. Understandably so, glad he didn't hide that part.

        From what I remember they would hide near areas that were well traveled for a prolonged period of time, he said days, and ambush people crossing by. I think I recall him saying that they trained people too.

        I met a former Marine prison warden, he probably dressed up what he really was, he was a massive loser "the boss will give me a raise" type. Who would brag about how they'd beat inmates especially from what he was saying the clearly mentally ill ones.

        I've also met military people who ranged from fascist to just massive libs with their head in the sand to based people who were just scamming the system so they could get out and make ends meet.

        I meet a lot of different people and I tend to listen more than talk in real life, but my memory sucks so sorry if you were looking for something more. There's way more but I'm no longer confident in the details or it's too personal to share.

        Also, you don't need my stories, you can go online and see that SEAL who ran so much he pissed blood or the guy who raised Isabella Janke (Sonichu stuff)

    • trabpukcip [he/him]
      hexbear
      10
      5 months ago

      My best friend's stepdad is an old SEAL at Camp Pendleton. He's a pretty chill guy for a stepdad, loves weed and airbrushing/painting tikis onto palm fronds. He cheers too loud at football games on the TV, but that's about it