Re: [SG] Boarding Party Considerations

> John,
> 
> On our cutters we generally have 3 LE teams that are made up of
crewmembers
> from each watch.  They consist of a boarding officer (E-7, O-1 or O-2)
3-4
> boarding team members and 2 boat crew.  All are armed with pistols. 
If
> there is higher threat they can be armed with Shotguns, M16s.  A large
> vessel can get 2 teams going over it or all three.
> 
> This is from a ships compliment of about 8-12 officers, and 60-80
crew.
> 
> Good ideas, I like the concept.
> 
> Bob
> 
On a Canadian destroyer ( 300 crew ) there would be a 20 man boarding
party. this would be a secondary duty for them and they are drawn from
all
different departments. One thing about the boarding party is they are
also
intended to act as a prize crew of the boarded vessel so the mix of
trades
would allow them to run it. Ships going to the gulf would normally have
two
20 man teams. The weaponry issued is close action stuff (submachineguns,
shotguns and pistols) although M16's and LMG's are available for shore
work.

One consideration when boarding a naval vssel is that there would likely
be
a lot of escape hatches that would lead from one space to another, some
in
the deck or deckhead that might not be obvious to the enemy force, this
would give a home field advantage to the boarded ship. picture the
boarding
party reporting a space clear, only to have troops comeing out of the
escape hatch under the desk behind the that they did not notice.