Ah yes, more history. This stuff never slips into the conversation about our early history here in the US, and I thought this little factoid is certainly relevant to today’s discussion. Using security contractors to defend ships is possible, is not that crazy of an idea, and we even took the concept a little further back in the day when we were dealing the Barbary pirates with this land assault. I also wrote a Building Snowmobiles deal, that talked about PMCs combined with Special Forces to fight a conflict, and that is worth a look if you are interested in exploring the concept. So with that said, here is the Battle of Derne and Semper Fi. –Matt
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The Battle of Derne
The Battle of Derne was a decisive victory of a mercenary army led by a detachment of United States Marines over the forces of the Barbary coast nation of Tripoli during the First Barbary War.
Background
The former Consul to Tunis, William Eaton returned to the Mediterranean with the title of ‘Naval Agent to the Barbary States’ in 1804. Eaton had been granted permission from the United States government to back the claim of Hamet Karamanli, the rightful heir to the throne of Tripoli, who had been deposed by his brother Yussif Karamanli. Upon his return Eaton sought out Hamet, who was in exile in Egypt, and made a proposal to reinstate him on the throne. Hamet agreed to Eaton’s plan.