Andrews Air Force Base, Md. ? The saga of the American merchant seamen who clashed with Somali pirates on the high seas off Africa ended early Thursday with a big “welcome home” banner and the warm embrace of families.

A charter flight from Kenya brought the crew of the Maersk Alabama to Andrews Air Force Base, where they had a private reunion with their loved ones. Missing was the Alabama’s skipper, still aboard the U.S. Navy destroyer that had saved him and was still chasing pirates off the east coast of Africa.

The crewmen were greeted at Andrews about midnight CDT by a bevy of reporters and cameras and a banner adorned with yellow ribbons reading “Welcome Home Maersk Alabama” that shipping company employees erected near the runway.

One week ago, pirates took over the Alabama briefly before Capt. Richard Phillips surrendered himself in exchange for the safety of his 19-member crew. Phillips was freed Sunday after five days of being held hostage in a lifeboat when U.S. Navy SEAL snipers on the destroyer USS Bainbridge killed three of his captors.

The Alabama crew had scuffled with the pirates, wounding one of them with an ice pick, in taking back control of their ship. The bandits fled the ship with Phillips as their captive, holding him in the lifeboat in a high-stakes standoff until the SEAL sharpshooters took action.

Another chartered plane was waiting at the Mombasa airport for Phillips, a Kenyan airport official said.