{"id":38926,"date":"2016-05-27T17:16:57","date_gmt":"2016-05-27T21:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=38926"},"modified":"2016-05-27T17:16:57","modified_gmt":"2016-05-27T21:16:57","slug":"us-special-ops-forces-raid-downtown-tampa-florida-in-search-of-pirates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=38926","title":{"rendered":"US Special Ops forces \u2018raid\u2019 downtown Tampa, Florida in search of pirates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--more--><div id=\"attachment_38930\" style=\"width: 910px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/5747c4dec36188a6278b4580.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-38930\" class=\"size-full wp-image-38930\" src=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/5747c4dec36188a6278b4580.jpg\" alt=\"\u00a9 Marc Serota \/ Reuters\" width=\"900\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/5747c4dec36188a6278b4580.jpg 900w, https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/5747c4dec36188a6278b4580-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/5747c4dec36188a6278b4580-768x427.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-38930\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u00a9 Marc Serota \/ Reuters<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n<div class=\"article__text text \">\n<p>United States Special Operations Forces descended from buildings, jumped from a Black Hawk helicopter and fired shots as they ambushed downtown Tampa, Florida, where \u2018pirates\u2019 had \u2018captured\u2019 the mayor. The stunt even took place in broad daylight.<\/p>\n<p>The rescue effort on was to test readiness in a crisis situation by carrying out a 30-minute drill exercise during the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference in the central Florida city Wednesday.<\/p>\n<div class=\"rtcode\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Special Forces action keeps coming from Tampa, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Florida?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Florida<\/a>. Even the Mayor had a go on a machine gun&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/uIZLyfGh75\">pic.twitter.com\/uIZLyfGh75<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Forces News (@ForcesNews) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ForcesNews\/status\/735826950397296641?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 26, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"article__text text \">\n<p><em>\u201cTo come here and showcase frankly was a little easier. It was daylight. Everything was on our terms, good weather, no bad guys; the manatees didn\u2019t interfere, no lightning, but the interoperability was already,\u201d<\/em> Special Forces Lt. Col. Chris Robeshaw told reporters, according to WFLA.<\/p>\n<p>Joining US Special Operations forces in the exercise were Navy SEALS, Marine Raiders and Army Green Berets, plus members from 15 other nations including Ireland and Jordan, many in make-up and disguises.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">US Special Forces have been showing what they can do in Tampa, Florida&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/37wGDcf5Md\">https:\/\/t.co\/37wGDcf5Md<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KtfTU2K3BN\">pic.twitter.com\/KtfTU2K3BN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Forces News (@ForcesNews) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ForcesNews\/status\/735795015952281600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 26, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cYou are just humbled to be amongst them. This is a great demo, but this is serious business for them,\u201d<\/em> said rescued Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn who was captured by pirates in the scenario told WFLA.<\/p>\n<p>The Washington Post reported <em>\u201crole players, dressed in black and carrying Kalashnikovs, feigned gunshot wounds as the coalition of commandos swooped in.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>http:\/\/twitter.com\/GregSherrow\/status\/474433967441969152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/p>\n<div class=\"article__text text \">\n<p>Unusually for a military division that ordinarily operates under the dark of night to conduct covert operations, the exercise was performed before the public who watched from the sidelines.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI sleep better at night knowing that that\u2019s what they do,\u201d<\/em> Lance Sturgis, a spectator told WFLA.<\/p>\n<p>Rieka Stroh was there with her son and his two friends who were thrilled by the movie-like scenes played out in real life.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI think the more important lesson is that they see that our military is so capable and we are a significant force in the world,\u201d<\/em> Stroh <a href=\"http:\/\/wwlp.com\/2016\/05\/26\/special-forces-swarm-tampa\/\">told<\/a>\u00a0WFLA.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">US special operations forces deployed to 135 countries in 2015 &#8211; report <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/bX0hQA4PJ6\">http:\/\/t.co\/bX0hQA4PJ6<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/xVu0LPkzwU\">pic.twitter.com\/xVu0LPkzwU<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; RT America (@RT_America) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RT_America\/status\/648080657600528384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 27, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"article__text text \">\n<p>The rescue was used to mark the beginning of a three-day meeting of Special Operations personnel, with 12,000 expected to attend.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cA lot of what we do is a bit secretive, we don\u2019t really advertise much of what we do and there is a reason for it,\u201d<\/em> Lt. Col. Robeshaw said, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/checkpoint\/wp\/2016\/05\/26\/special-operations-troops-assaulted-downtown-tampa-all-to-thunderous-applause\/\">according to<\/a>\u00a0The Washington Post. <em>\u201cI think \u2026 this is maybe a stark reminder that there are young men and women out there putting themselves at risk.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/usa\/344538-special-ops-forces-drill-tampa\/\">http:\/\/www.rt.com\/usa\/344538-special-ops-forces-drill-tampa\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38926\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}