{"id":190939,"date":"2023-08-26T12:17:39","date_gmt":"2023-08-26T17:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/digest\/?p=171058"},"modified":"2023-08-26T12:17:39","modified_gmt":"2023-10-06T00:18:04","slug":"the-rescue-of-jessica-buchanan-that-one-perfect-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/the-rescue-of-jessica-buchanan-that-one-perfect-moment\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Dabbs – The Rescue of Jessica Buchanan: That One Perfect Moment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/span>Estimated reading time: <\/span>15<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr.
This is Frank Bernard Dicksee’s 1885 painting Chivalry. All proper young men aspire to experience such as this.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What if your entire professional career distilled down to a single event? Imagine that you have one of the hardest jobs in the entire world. You have worked, struggled, sacrificed, and bled to reach the absolute pinnacle of your particularly grueling profession. You have toiled and trained countless days, weeks, months, and years so that at that one perfect crystalline moment you would be ready. Then out of the darkness, you place your hand on a terrified young woman who is hurt, sick, and hopeless and you say, “Jessica, it\u2019s okay. I know you\u2019re scared, but you\u2019re going to be okay. We\u2019re the American military, and you\u2019re safe now. We\u2019re gonna take you home.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr.
This is BUD\/S–Basic Underwater Demolition\/SEAL. BUD\/S is the place where baby frogmen get their start. Young men endure such as this for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons is the hope that they might someday get to rescue a terrified young woman from the clutches of some evil terrorists.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One nameless member of the US Navy’s SEAL Team 6 got to utter those very words on the evening of 25 January 2012. While for Jessica Buchanan that was likely the single most moving thing she had ever heard, that was likely a pretty epic moment for that Navy SEAL as well. Just thinking about it gives me the willies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr.
Somalia is where hope goes to die. That is one seriously messed up place.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Place<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If hopelessness and depravity were minerals you dug up out of the ground, Somalia would be where you\u2019d go to find them. I\u2019m not sure if it is their dark angry religion, their generational legacy of abject squalor, or some heretofore unidentified toxin in the food or water, but something about Somalia just isn\u2019t right. Not meaning to seem all judgy, but we were just trying to keep those people from starving and they fought us like there was no tomorrow. It\u2019s honestly fairly surreal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr.
This is a picture of a Russian PTKM-1R top-attack anti-armor mine that a friend sent me from Ukraine. This horrible thing sports both acoustic and seismic sensors to detect passing armored vehicles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Reality Of It<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Arguably the greatest scourge in modern warfare is mines. These diabolical monsters are cheap, easy-to-use combat multipliers. It takes literally no talent to sow a decent minefield. Once activated, these things just sit quietly and wait for something juicy to wander by. They kill and maim efficiently, effectively, and indiscriminately. The problem is that in many to most cases there is no way to turn them off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr.
We civilized folk really cannot imagine how horrible it must be to try to raise kids in a war zone.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mines are emplaced most commonly from a state of desperation. There are seldom accurate maps produced that document their locations. Even if there were, those maps would never be 100% reliable. Older generation mines lack a self-destruct system, so they can remain in place for years if not decades after whatever war that spawned them is complete. At that point, hapless farmers or children playing can trip over the things with predictably horrible results. So it was with Somalia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr.
Part of the tragedy that is Somalia stems from some unfortunate geography. Most of it, however, is because some people really suck.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Somalia is a simply horrible place in the Horn of Africa. It is home to some 17 million people. The nation\u2019s terribly unfortunate geography synergistically combines with some epically bad governance to produce cyclical famines and friable infrastructure. In 1993 we lost seventeen servicemen killed and another hundred or so wounded just trying to keep local Somali warlords from seizing international food aid and using it to enhance their personal power. Nineteen years later in 2012, you\u2019d think we\u2019d have learned our lesson. However, with the benefit of hindsight, I suppose we didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Setting<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Dr.
Jessica Buchanan and her husband Erik were trying to save the world.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In October of 2011, American Jessica Buchanan along with a Dane named Poul Hagen Thisted were working through the Danish Refugee Council in Somalia on a wide-ranging demining project. Their stated goal was to teach Somali children how to survive in a mine-rich environment. That seems an honorable pursuit to me. However, one motley contingent of Somali pirates apparently felt otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr.
This is a still from the epic Tom Hanks movie Captain Phillips. Somali pirates put the scum in scumbag.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With the uptick in maritime attacks off the eastern coast of Somalia, the free world\u2019s navies began patrolling these pirate-infested waters regularly and aggressively. Shipping companies also posted armed security contractors onboard their transiting vessels. As a result, the pirates\u2019 traditional hunting grounds dried up. In response, these bottom-feeding parasites began prowling inland for Western aid workers like Buchanan and Thisted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr.
I suppose no good deed goes unpunished. Jessica Buchanan was kidnapped and abused because she was trying to help some of the most profoundly impoverished kids on the planet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Jessica Buchanan was an English teacher from Ohio out to save the world. While traveling cross country in a trio of land cruisers en route to the city of Galkayo, Jessica\u2019s group was attacked by the aforementioned Somali pirates. These modern-day brigands kidnapped Buchanan and her Danish friend before driving them for hours with weapons pointed at their heads. The two captives were later forced to walk throughout the night to a militarized compound in Galguduud some 90 miles inland from the Indian Ocean. There they remained\u2026for 93 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr.
Much of Somalia is a lawless wasteland. It looks like something out of a dystopian movie.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It’s not that the United States government had forgotten about Jessica. It is simply that her captors were a bunch of greedy unwashed psychopaths. They demanded $45 million to release their captives. Negotiations eventually resulted in an offer of $1.5 million cash, but the pirates felt that they could do better. Meanwhile, Jessica was getting sick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr.
We take modern medicine for granted. In an austere environment, however, little things can quickly become big things.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Jessica had a thyroid condition that demanded daily medication she was no longer receiving. In addition to inadequate food and unsanitary water, she developed a urinary tract infection (UTI). Out here in the World, that\u2019s a week\u2019s worth of antibiotics and a little cranberry juice. In the desert wastes of Somalia, an untreated UTI meant a slow miserable death. It eventually became clear that something had to be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Op<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Dr.
The 1990 action classic Navy SEALs was a simply epic watch. While this promotional still is indeed compelling, the SEALs in the movie never once used M-4-variant rifles. Odd that Bill Paxton’s version (top right) is missing its front sight base.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

SEE MORE: The Battle for Checkpoint Pasta: Precursor to Blackhawk Down<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I have it on reliable information that movies are not actually real. However, the rescue of Jessica Buchanan and Poul Hagen Thisted was movie-grade awesome. It all started with a tactical parachute jump out of an American cargo plane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr.
SEAL Team 6 and the Army’s Delta Force are the very tip of the spear.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The players were DEVGRU\u2014the US Navy\u2019s SEAL Team 6. These high-speed frogmen were still riding high after having killed Osama bin Laden roughly five months before. Now on the ground in eastern Africa, 24 operators covertly ditched their chutes and formed up for a cross-country march to the Somali pirates\u2019 evil lair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr.
Holing up in a remote survival compound looks good on paper. However, when your opponent wields surveillance drones and satellite imagery that just makes you easier to find.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The pirates had done their part to help out. As they were now conducting terrestrial operations, that meant a discrete static compound irrevocably tied to geography. This fact facilitated aerial surveillance. By the time they parachuted out of that airplane, the SEALs knew exactly what they would be facing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr.
I suspect that being on the receiving end of this sort of pain would be pretty darn unpleasant.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Jessica later said that she and her captors heard what sounded like rodents scurrying in the bush. Her guard shouted an alarm to his comrades, and then the whole world exploded. At this point, Buchanan had no idea that these were American special operators. At the time she feared al-Shabaab terrorists or a rival pirate mob. She later confided that she did not think she could survive being kidnapped yet again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr.
Every soldier or cop lives to be that guy who rescues the fair damsel from certain death.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Throughout it all, Buchanan and Thisted just curled up and tried to be small. Now nearly delirious with malnutrition and disease and expecting death at any moment, the American captive heard those words she had long dreamt of hearing. I obviously wasn\u2019t there, but I can guarantee you that whoever first reached Jessica on that horrible chaotic night had trained their entire professional life for that specific moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr.
The pirates who kidnapped Buchanan and Thisted didn’t have long to regret their poor life choices.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

SEALs do their best work at night. The pirates really never had a chance. They unlimbered their AK\u2019s, but the SEALs, equipped with state-of-the-art night vision and the finest intelligence and logistics support on the planet, were an unstoppable force. In moments, the SEALs had killed nine pirates. There were unconfirmed rumors that they might have captured another three, but I couldn’t find any references to what became of them. Piracy as a career path doesn’t offer much of a retirement plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr.
Jessica Buchanan was in no shape for a long forced march through the desert to their extraction PZ, so the SEALs just carried her.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When she was rescued, Jessica was shoeless and unable to walk. One of the burly SEALs just threw the thin woman over his shoulder and jogged to safety. As they waited for the exfil helicopters the SEALs made a circle around the captives. When they heard what they thought were pursuing pirates, the frogmen physically shielded them with their bodies. Once they were safely aboard the helicopter one of the SEALs gave Jessica a folded American flag. She later said, \u201cI just started to cry. At that point in time I have never in my life been so proud and so very happy to be an American.\u201d I hate to tell you this, but if you can read that without being moved then something about you is broken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr.
Buchanan and Thisted were soon back home with their loved ones. If ever you have wondered why we support the US military through our tax dollars, this is it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Buchanan and Thisted made full recoveries. Thisted later stated that his lucky break was being captured with an American. None of the attacking SEALs received so much as a scratch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Weapons<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Dr.
The HK416 was developed as a result of an initiative through the Army’s Delta Force.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

DEVGRU and the Army\u2019s 1st<\/sup> Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta are our Tier 1 counter-terrorist units. They are as highly trained and exquisitely equipped as our great nation is capable of making them. The end result is the most capable military force in the world. Their standard assault rifle reflects that same rarefied mantra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr.
The HK416 is surprisingly heavy in the flesh. However, it represents the current state of the art in small arms technology.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The HK416 was a collaborative effort in the late 1990\u2019s between Delta and Heckler & Koch. Representing a holy melding of the M-4 carbine and the short-stroke, piston-driven gas-operated system pioneered in the ArmaLite AR-180, the HK416 combined world-class reliability with superlative ergonomics. The end result changed the game a little bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr.
Both France and Norway have adopted the HK416 as their standard infantry weapon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nowadays the HK416 has been officially adopted by the militaries of France and Norway. The US Marine Corps also fields the weapon in a slightly modified form as the M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle. The HK416 maintains a sterling reputation for accuracy and reliability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Aftermath<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Dr.
There was indeed a happy ending to this story…unless you like greedy bloodthirsty pirates, in which case you’re just out of luck.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One of the ways Jessica coped with her protracted captivity was by imagining that she and her husband Erik might someday have a baby. These episodes eventually evolved to the point where she visualized her child, a boy, alongside the two of them in a place of complete comfort and safety. As the weeks stretched into months and her health began to fail this exercise helped keep her strong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr.
This was Jessica and Erik Buchanan’s little boy a short while before they formally met him.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Dr.
The Buchanans celebrated Jessica’s rescue with an unexpected child.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Jessica and Erik were reunited at a military base in Italy. She was thin, emotionally wrecked, and traumatized both mentally and physically. Four weeks later she began throwing up. The nausea got progressively worse until it manifested almost every time she ate. Jessica naturally assumed it was a function of the rich food to which she had become so unaccustomed. Soon thereafter, she had a positive pregnancy test. 8.5 months after her rescue she and Erik welcomed their son. God\u2019s got a weird sense of humor sometimes, but that strikes me as a pretty cool way to commemorate her rescue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*** Buy and Sell on GunsAmerica!<\/a> ***<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I obviously wasn\u2019t there, but I can guarantee you that whoever first reached Jessica on that horrible chaotic night had trained their entire professional life for that specific moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":171194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_specdata_upc":"","_specdata_placement":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,772],"tags":[132,102,2050,3763,2836],"featured":[],"hunt365":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-190939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gunsamerica-authors","8":"category-will-dabbs","9":"tag-buzz","10":"tag-feature-articles","11":"tag-hk416","12":"tag-navy-seals","13":"tag-will-dabbs"},"yoast_head":"\nThe Rescue of Jessica Buchanan: That One Perfect Moment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dr Dabbs - Every Navy Seal trains for the moment where he saves the damsel in distress. 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However, shooting guns and claiming it was work seemed like a pretty sweet hustle. As a result, Will serendipitously transformed an avocation into a vocation. Raised in the Mississippi Delta, Will flew UH1H, OH58A\\\/C, CH47D and AH1S helicopters operationally as an Army Aviator. He is SCUBA-qualified and has parachuted out of perfectly good airplanes at 3 o'clock in the morning. Will has summited Mount McKinley, Alaska, six times\u2026always at the controls of an Army helicopter, which is the only way sensible folk climb mountains. Will has delivered sixty babies and occasionally wrung human blood out of his socks. He is married to his high school sweetheart and has three awesome adult children. 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