Navy's Anti-piracy Unit In Somalia Coast Marks 5 Years Since Major Rescue Operation

Thursday January 21, 2016

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Worries about success and fears of wounds tormented South Korea's Navy Sea, Air and Land (SEAL) Park Sang-joon before the operation began and seized his focus, the soldier said of the Navy's much-celebrated mission to rescue a freighter hijacked by Somali pirates five years ago, Yonhap news agency reported.

Park was among some 300 special troops who, aboard Navy destroyer Choi Young on Jan 21, 2011 rescued the 11,500-tonne South Korean chemical freighter, Samho Jewelry, when it was hijacked in the Arabian Sea along with its 21 crewmen by Somali pirates.

Since then, the "Dawn of the Gulf of Aden" mission has been the most well-known feat of the anti-piracy Cheonghae Unit, which South Korea stationed in the Arabian Sea off Somalia, a hub of pirate activity since 2009.

According to the Navy, three Navy SEALs of the troops that took part in the original rescue mission returned to the Gulf of Aden last year to serve another term with the anti-piracy unit.

Park, a chief petty officer was among the select group of forces who stepped onto the freighter and engaged in a brief gun battle before taking control of the commercial vessel.

In the operation, several Somali pirates were killed or went missing and five others were taken alive to face criminal charges in South Korea.

"I was very nervous, thinking if we could complete the mission without human damage. But as the operation kicked off, such worries disappeared. I had trust in my colleagues beside me who entered the Samho Jewelry together and the Lynx helicopters and the destroyer Choi Young that covered us," Park said in his recollection of the mission in an interview provided by the Navy.

The other SEAL, Chief Petty Officer Kang Joon, a sniper who was warded after he sustained a minor gunshot wound in a brief encounter three days before the main operation, said he was thrilled to hear that the mission was successful.

Since the successful mission, the anti-piracy unit has upgraded its operation capabilities through the introduction of an automatic elevator which can help forces penetrate hijacked ships more easily and new weapons and bullet proof gear, the Navy said.

The anti-piracy unit has successfully carried out a total of 21 rescue missions since its deployment in 2009, in which 31 South Korean and foreign vessels were freed from pirates seeking ransom.

The Cheonghae Unit's rotating destroyer was also mobilized when South Korea evacuated South Korean and foreign nationals from Libya in 2011 and 2014.

During its seven-year service, the unit has also escorted some 14,130 South Korea and foreign vessels safely through the piracy-prone region, according to the Navy.

The dispatched unit gained further fame when Chey Min-jung, a daughter of Number 3 conglomerate SK Group's Chairman Chey Tae-won, joined the mission last year as a naval officer.

The Navy will hold a ceremony to mark the 5th anniversary of the Dawn of Gulf of Aden mission on Thursday at a naval base in Busan with the special forces who participated in it and the captain of the seized freighter.

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