Search
Home

This is how we do it.

Over the weekend SEAL Team 6 proved once again why they are admired and feared around the globe.

Last Monday, Oct. 26, a group of six men on motorcycles, armed with AK-47s, made the fatal mistake of kidnapping an American citizen named Phillip Walton.

The 27-year-old Christian missionary lived with his wife and daughter outside the village of the village of Massalata in Niger. Walton kept livestock, poultry and grew mango trees on his farm near the border with Nigeria.

According to U.S. and Nigerien officials, the kidnappers asked him for money, but when all he offered was $40, they took him away by force.

Once the U.S. was made aware of his abduction, speed was essential.

A former U.S. counterterrorism official told ABC the odds for a successful rescue in such “highly dangerous” missions are less than 30 percent. It’s crucial to act as quickly as possible so hostages aren’t sold and wind up in the hands of al Qaeda or ISIS.
“The longer a hostage is held the harder it is to find an exact location to be able and conduct a rescue operation,” the official said.

Except when you’re talking about the SEALs.

ABC News consultant Mick Mulroy, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense and retired CIA officer, said preparations for Walton’s rescue likely started when he was abducted.

“These types of operations are some of the most difficult to execute,” he said. “Any mistake could easily lead to the death of the hostage. The men and women of JSOC [Joint Special Operations Command], and the CIA should be proud of what they did here. And all Americans should be proud of them. “

The CIA provided intelligence leading to Walton’s location and Marine Special Operations personnel in Africa helped locate him, a former U.S. official said.

Under cover of darkness on October 31, just days after his initial capture, the elite SEAL Team 6 operators jumped out of a U.S. Air Force transport plane and carried out a “precision” hostage rescue mission. In a short firefight, they killed all but one of the seven men guarding Walton, according to officials with direct knowledge about the operation.

“They were all dead before they knew what happened,” another counterterrorism source with knowledge told ABC News.

In a statement after the rescue, the Pentagon said, “U.S. forces conducted a hostage rescue operation during the early hours of 31 October in Northern Nigeria to recover an American citizen held hostage by a group of armed men. This American citizen is safe and is now in the care of the U.S. Department of State. No U.S military personnel were injured during the operation.

President Trump tweeted his congrats too, saying it was a “big win for our very elite Special Forces today.

Yup. This is how we do it.