Guerrillas target oil company workers in Nigeria, pirates ransom cargo ship operators off the coast of Somalia and criminal gangs go after tech executives and their children in India.
The ship's snipers and machine gunners were given the honour and some impromptu target practice eventually led to an explosion and the pirate boat going under.
But the five sailors in "Target Practice, USS Peleliu, " honing their marksmanship on the deck of an assault ship, could be actors on stage in a macabre play.
"After he attacked an Armenian merchant ship, the East India Company pulled strings to have him arrested on the grounds that it was not a legitimate target for a privateer -- even though it was sailing under a French pass, " he explained.