[mountn man]

The Harry S Truman is in the Persian Gulf.

Nobody's going to tell me the Truman didn't know what and where Iran had in the water.
Airborne F-18's could have been on site in 10 minutes.

[freeandfreezing]

Correct, and one more reason this whole episode seems implausible. The crew of the Harry S Truman has very sophisticated radar systems, along with air based surveillance in order to protect the ship. Hard to imagine any significant Iranian boats were anywhere nearby without the crew on the Truman knowing exactly where and what they were.

The island in question is far enough from the Iranian mainland that US air resources could have easily been dispatched. One of our more experienced Freepers has suggested that a heavily armed patrol boat must have intercepted the US boats, but whatever arms it might have had wouldn't have meant much against an F/A-18.