A US Navy captain tells BI his heart was racing when his warship came under Houthi fire for the first time

• The US Navy destroyer USS Stockdale came under Houthi fire multiple times last year.
• The Stockdale's captain, then the executive officer, described to BI what it was like to battle the rebels.
• He said his heart was racing and that seeing the warship's missiles launch was "unlike anything else."

Cdr. Jacob Beckelhymer remembers vividly the first time his warship came under attack in the Red Sea.

It was late September of last year, and the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Stockdale was already several months into its lengthy Middle East deployment. Beckelhymer, then the warship's executive officer, knew that the ship and its sailors could be pulled into combat at any moment against the Iran-backed Houthis who had been launching missiles and drones into shipping lanes.

"We went into it with the expectation that there was a high probability that we would come under fire," he told Business Insider in a recent interview.

When the attack came, the destroyer was prepared. Sailors had received their pre-briefing, and the crew was well-rested. The watch teams were ready.

That day, the Houthi rebels fired a barrage of missiles and drones.

Beckelhymer was in the pilot house with the warship's commanding officer and watched as the bridge team, from lieutenants down to junior sailors, performed as they were trained. He said he experienced a heart rate increase and some excitement. Seeing a surface-to-air missile come out of the launchers for real, and not in a training scenario, is "unlike anything else."

Beckelhymer recalls thinking about his composure. He briefly thought about how he'd always wanted to teach his eldest daughter how to ride a bike. The most pressing thought, though, was that the destroyer needed to make it home.

A mix of Navy warships in the Red Sea, including the Stockdale, thwarted the Houthi attack.

Beckelhymer said that "the biggest takeaway" for him "was how quickly we did the things that we were supposed to, we reset, and then we all got back on the same page to do it again."

The Stockdale came under Houthi fire several times during its combat-packed deployment, which ended in February. The Navy said that the destroyer "successfully repelled" multiple attacks, shooting down a tough combination of drones and missiles and emerging unscathed each time.

"The mission sets that we performed over there were a combination of standard missile defense, contested straight transit, and civilian escort," said Beckelhymer, who is now the Stockdale's commanding officer.

"We had occasion to use weapons in defense of ourselves and ships in company a number of times. In all of those instances, the team responded really, really great," he told BI. "We didn't incur any sort of stress reactions. The overall resilience of the crew was great."

Several weeks after Stockdale returned to its homeport in San Diego, the destroyer deployed again — this time to the waters off the coast of southern California, where, until recently, it supported the US military's southern border mission. Two other warships that fought the Houthis also participated in these operations.

While the threat environment was different in the Pacific compared to the Red Sea, Beckelhymer said the approach to the mission was relatively similar, even if Stockdale's weapons system was placed in a different configuration.

"It takes every single person on board this ship, all-in, every single day, to operate safely at sea," he said. "Whether you're off the coast of California or you're in the Red Sea, the business that we do is inherently dangerous. And flight operations, small boat operations, underway replenishment — all of those things take our collective focus."

Beckelhymer said he saw his crew's confidence grow consistently from September until the end of the most recent deployment. The sailors, he said, had every reason to be proud of their abilities. Receiving the training is one thing, but it's another to be tested in real-world conditions and have everything validated.

"We experienced that in the Red Sea, and I think we experienced that again over the last 40-ish days off the coast of California," he said. "When the Navy needs us, Stockdale is ready."