Pittsylvania Co. sailor witness to pirate hostage drama

While the nation was riveted by the rescue of a merchant ship’s captain off the coast of Somalia early this month, the tense saga leading up to it was more up-close and personal for one Danville area native.

For five tense days, Navy Petty Officer Carl McLaughlin, 21, of Dry Fork, waited anxiously aboard the U.S.S. Bainbridge while four Somali pirates held Capt. Richard Phillips hostage in a lifeboat from his ship, the Maersk Alabama, in the Indian Ocean.

When Navy SEALs killed three of the pirates and returned Phillips to safety, “that was the end of the longest five days of my life,” McLaughlin said during a telephone interview Wednesday from aboard the U.S.S. Bainbridge, which is still off the Somali coast.

McLaughlin, a gunner’s mate and member of the Navy’s Small Caliber Action Team (SCAT), told his story to the Danville Register & Bee.

The Bainbridge, with about 300 personnel, was performing operations in the Indian Ocean when McLaughlin’s commanding officer received word that a cargo ship, the Maersk Alabama, had been attacked by pirates. The Bainbridge moved over to the Maersk to find out that its captain had turned himself over to the armed pirates as a hostage to save his crew, McLaughlin recalled.

“(The pirates) started heading away from the ship when we got there,” McLaughlin said. “They already had him in the lifeboat.”

In the meantime, those aboard the Bainbridge didn’t want to escalate the situation, he said.

McLaughlin’s six-member SCAT unit was at the ship’s

forecastle (pronounced foc-sle), or forward part of the ship.

“We were standing watch to make sure they wouldn’t do anything irrational,” he said.

The pirates holding Phillips had gotten a good distance away.

McLaughlin was afraid, but not for himself. He feared for Phillips.

When McLaughlin joined the Navy in 2005 under its Delayed Duty Program, he knew he would enter dangerous, life-threatening situations. After graduating from Chatham High School in 2006, he went on duty in September that year and went through boot camp. McLaughlin saw the Navy as a good opportunity; it would pay for his education.

“It seemed like the best option at the time,” said McLaughlin, who hopes to study business management or communications.

McLaughlin and his wife, Elechianna, who lives in Norfolk, have a 7-month-old daughter, Naliya. His mother, Kimberly McLaughlin, resides in Dry Fork, where he grew up since moving there from Danville in the fifth grade.

As a gunner’s mate, McLaughlin is responsible for maintaining small arms and large weapons, including torpedoes.

In the days and nights of the hostage ordeal, McLaughlin took turns standing watch. Shifts were two to three hours on the hot days and six hours at night.

He ate and tried to catch up on sleep when not on watch. He mostly bypassed sleep.

“I wanted to stay up and find out what was happening and know that he was safe,” McLaughlin said. 

At times he wasn’t sure if he would make it out alive and he feared never seeing his loved ones again.

The second night, when McLaughlin’s SCAT unit alternated standing watch with three on and three off, he woke from his slumber to find out that Phillips had tried to escape. He made his daring attempt while one of the pirates relieved himself off the side of the boat. Phillips pushed him into the water and dived away from the pirate, McLaughlin said.

  “Capt. Phillips didn’t get too far from the lifeboat before the pirates started firing AK-47s at him,” he said.

  When they recaptured him, they abused him, hitting Phillips with the butt of an AK-47 and tied his hands to the bottom of a chair on the lifeboat.

It was the next night when everyone heard a gunshot from inside the lifeboat.

“I feared for the worst,” McLaughlin said. “I thought they had taken his life.”

McLaughlin was on watch and the crew, which had a Somali translator, tried to de-escalate the situation. McLaughlin doesn’t know what the translator said to the pirates. When the crew maneuvered the Bainbridge closer to the lifeboat, the pirates opened the door so they could see Phillips was still alive.

It was about the fourth night when the Navy SEALs arrived, McLaughlin said. The translator told the pirates the Bainbridge would bring them water and batteries for the radio.

It wasn’t long before the pirates’ lifeboat headed to Somalia. To disorient them and throw them off course, the Bainbridge circled them to create waves, and a helicopter was brought in to stir up water and stymie the pirates, McLaughlin said.

The SEALs took water and food to the lifeboat, and an injured pirate was given medical attention. McLaughlin said he didn’t know how the pirate was hurt.

After negotiations, Bainbridge personnel had convinced the pirates to let them tow the lifeboat to a town in Somalia. But the Navy had other plans, McLaughlin said.

“We ended up taking them further out to sea,” he said.

However, the pirates got wind of what the Bainbridge was up to, probably because they had a compass, McLaughlin said.

They fired their AK-47s at the ship and that’s when the SEALs took care of business. Three pirates were killed and one was taken into custody.

McLaughlin didn’t get to meet the man who became a national hero, but his admiration for Phillips knows no limits.

“I feel like he’s one of the greatest people I’ve ever (seen) in my life,” McLaughlin said. “He had been through thick and thin.”

What did he learn most from the ordeal?

“I learned to never give up,” he said. “Always hold on.”

McLaughlin, who joined the Navy for a four-year stint and another four years in reserves, said he plans to re-enlist and stay active.