It was exhausting to overlook Boatswain’s Mate 1st Class Ahmed El Haroun among the many throngs of uniformed sailors shuttling between classes on the Surface Navy Affiliation’s annual convention close to Washington.
Over his enlisted “cracker jack” gown blues, El Haroun wore an elaborately knotted white boatswain’s mate’s lanyard, a conventional ornament he’d made himself over the course of his first deployment to the Center East onboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer Mason — one launched shortly after the October 2023 Hamas assault on Israel unleashed chaos within the area.
El Haroun, 38, acquired one of many affiliation’s Floor Warfare Operational Excellence Awards for his gutsy function in responding to a Somali pirate assault on a business tanker within the Gulf of Aden.
Whereas Mason’s intervention within the tanker’s tried seizure and seize of the 5 pirates made headlines at the time, El Haroun’s function within the rescue — one knowledgeable by his Egyptian heritage and data of the pirates’ language and Center Jap tradition — has by no means earlier than been made public.
Vice Adm. Brendan McLane, proper, and Rear Adm. Joseph Cahill, left, current awards to Lt. Cmdr. Lindsey Boyle, middle left, Boatswain’s Mate 2nd Class Ahmed El Haroun, middle, and Lt. Cmdr. Dyuti Das. (MC1 Claire M. Alfaro/Navy)
Now stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, El Haroun lately spoke with Navy Occasions concerning the incident, throughout which he grew to become the Navy’s major contact level with the pirates and confirmed, as his award quotation put it, “unparalleled braveness” and “management underneath hearth” in serving to to seize the pirates and safe the discharge of twenty-two hostages onboard the tanker.
El Haroun, who grew up in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, traveled to the U.S. as an grownup together with his spouse, an American Navy veteran. When their first little one, born in 2016, was handled by Navy docs at Balboa Naval Medical Heart in San Diego for a life-threatening respiratory an infection, El Haroun was deeply moved.
“After that, I needed to do one thing again,” El Haroun mentioned. “I needed to say thanks for the nation, for every part they did for me and for my household.”
When his spouse prompt he be part of the Navy, he was unsure at first.
“And I mentioned, ‘What? Come on,’” he recalled. “I simply got here from Egypt. Like, they’re not gonna settle for me.”
However the concept took maintain, and he determined to go for it. Although El Haroun had, he mentioned, earned a number of levels in Egypt, he wasn’t but a U.S. citizen. So, he pursued an enlisted path into the Navy, positive from the beginning he needed to be a boatswain’s mate, a workhorse score that requires bodily acumen and experience in seamanship.
“I like to work with my palms; I like to construct a workforce,” he recalled. “This was precisely what I would like.”
As El Haroun and his crew members educated in Mason’s dwelling station of Mayport, Florida, information broke of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terror assaults, by which almost 1,200 individuals, most civilians, have been killed and roughly 250 extra taken hostage.
The ship sailed that very same month in what would find yourself being a 263-day deployment in and across the Pink Sea. El Haroun mentioned he knew issues would possibly get sporty, and as one of many older sailors of his rank within the crew, he took it upon himself to arrange for the worst.
“I talked to my chain of command: ‘I’ll order plenty of restore elements earlier than deployment and hold them with me. And if one thing occurs, I’ll truly restore it instantly, as a substitute of really ready for the half to [arrive],’” he recalled.
In the course of the deployment, he mentioned, Mason’s crew was capable of full all repairs inside 24 hours.
Then got here Nov. 24, 2023, the day pirates tried to hijack the chemical tanker M/V Central Park within the Gulf of Aden.
Mason was present process a multi-day replenishment mission close to Djibouti when the ship’s skipper, Cmdr. Justin Smith, was knowledgeable concerning the assault. The crew wasn’t instantly briefed on the state of affairs, however the ship set course for the tanker’s location, cruising almost at full pace — round 29 knots, or 33 miles per hour, El Haroun recalled.
A Boatswain’s Mate indicators for an MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter to take off from guided missile destroyer Mason within the Pink Sea. (U.S. Navy)
Because the ship lined the space, the boatswain’s mate obtained a name from his division head asking if he spoke Arabic. El Haroun answered that he spoke each dialect of the language and had served because the command’s translator.
Instantly, he was shifted to a brand new function in Mason’s Go to, Board, Search and Seizure (VBSS) workforce — one which ensured he’d be in direct confrontation with the pirates.
Because the ship neared the tanker, El Haroun was given a megaphone. He noticed the Somali pirates in a small wood boat and delivered the instructions in Arabic.
“You’re listening to the U.S. Navy,” he mentioned. “Cease your engines. Stand by for additional instruction.”
The pirates ignored the order and continued trying to board the tanker, El Haroun mentioned. Regardless of carrying no weapon, El Haroun suspected the pirates, who he believed to be armed, would reply to a present of bravado fairly than diplomacy.
“Within the Center East, should you’re aggressive, should you put them within the [subordinate] place, they may take heed to you,” he mentioned.
Approaching the pirate’s vessel onboard one among Mason’s rigid-hulled inflatable boats (RHIBs), El Haroun mentioned he stored occurring the megaphone, positioning himself on the entrance of the small boat and yelling on the pirates to maintain them disoriented and off-balance. He put himself between the pirates and the remainder of his crew members, he mentioned, to power them to need to work together with him.
As soon as the wood boat had been cleared of weapons and the pirates had been apprehended, El Haroun mentioned they appeared decidedly much less menacing.
Two, he mentioned, have been of their teenagers or early 20s; one was in his mid-20s; and two have been of their 40s or 50s. Although the pirates had motive to be extra afraid of the VBSS workforce than the sailors have been of them, El Haroun mentioned his first concern remained maintaining the Mason’s crew secure.
When the captured pirates boarded Mason, he had them face out to sea, guaranteeing they’d be unable to make eye contact with any crew members. In the end, El Haroun mentioned, they have been in confinement on Mason for 30 days earlier than U.S. Marines took them to Djibouti for eventual return to Somalia. He continued to behave as their translator for communication and interrogation the complete time.
In the course of the rescue, El Haroun and his teammates additionally had an in depth encounter with one other menace that was an ever-present a part of their deployment: incoming missiles, seemingly fired by Houthi rebels in Yemen. With the RHIB transporting pirates again to the ship, he mentioned, incoming missiles added an nearly surreal depth.
In his on a regular basis function as boatswain’s mate, El Haroun mentioned, he tried to assist sailors who have been shedding sleep over the common missile assaults on the ship. An excellent day’s work apprehending pirates, in the meantime, offered an exclamation level to an intense deployment within the Pink Sea.
“It was an awesome expertise,” he mentioned. “I really feel … me and my workforce performed a giant function in saving a complete tanker and a complete crew. It feels … like an honor. I’m pleased with what me and my workforce truly did.”
With what he goals to be a few years of a army profession forward of him, El Haroun mentioned he’s hoping to change into an intelligence officer, placing his Arabic expertise and prior expertise to work for the Navy.
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