FORT PIERCE — A day after Navy SEAL sharpshooters killed three Somali pirates and freed an American ship captain, officials at the National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum in Fort Pierce were already trying to collect mementos from the historic event.

“We’re starting to get to work on seeing what we can get,” said Michael Howard, the museum director and a former SEAL. “It would be a shame to let this event pass without saving something at the museum.”

Exhibits at the museum at 3300 N. State Road A1A on North Hutchinson Island in Fort Pierce show the history of the Navy SEALs and their predecessors, including the Underwater Demolition Teams, Naval Combat Demolition Units, Office of Strategic Services Maritime Units, and Amphibious Scouts and Raiders.

According to Associated Press reports, Capt. Richard Phillips of the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama cargo ship, had been taken hostage Wednesday by pirates off the Somali coast and held in a lifeboat.

After one of the pirates pointed an AK-47 at the bound Phillips, the commander of the nearby USS Bainbridge gave the command to shoot, killing three pirates. A fourth pirate is in U.S. custody.

“We talked about trying to get our hands on the lifeboat (in which Phillips was held),” Howard said, “but that would be a stretch. It’s got to be pretty big.”

Howard said it’s more likely the museum could get “something such as uniforms, photos, even shell casings from the mission.”

If he can find out what type of rifle the sharpshooters used, Howard said, “we may already have some of them that we can put on display.”

That the SEAL sharpshooters on the ship were able to hit their targets on the lifeboat “doesn’t surprise me,” Howard said. “It’s remarkable, but not surprising. These guys are very, very well trained. We used to have a saying in the (SEAL) teams: ‘What we routinely do is not routine.’”

Facts about the Navy UDT-SEAL Museum

• Artifacts and photos trace the history of the Navy’s special warfare units from their beginnings in World War II through the Navy SEALs current role in fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

• The site, 3300 North State Road A1A, just south of Pepper Beach Park, had been used as a Navy amphibious training base during World War II.

• It was built in 1969-70 to house the Florida State Treasure Museum, which closed 15 years later.

• The UDT-SEAL Museum took over in 1985.

• It’s owned by St. Lucie County, which leases it to the UDT-SEAL Association at a minimal cost.

• Hours: Mondays through April, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 4 p.m.

• Admission: $6 for adults 13 and over, $3 for children ages 6 to 12, free for kids 5 and under; group rates available.

• For information, call (772) 595-5845 or go to www.navysealmuseum.com

By Tyler Treadway

Tags: beach, children, fight, Florida, hand, housing, informant, kids, North, photos, roads, Shell, shooting

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 at 11:50 am and is filed under Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, State. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.