captain chuck upp usn had been the captain of the us navy cruiser that had escorted me as we had skirted somalia all those years ago , and i had provided some r & r for him and his crew , and after thanking him , and everyone else on the bridge most profusely we watched a bell-boeing v-22 osprey approach from head-on , circle around and alight lightly onto the deck , very impressive i thought , but i knew that the most experienced pilots on board the ship were at its controls .