Posted on 07/17/2012 7:01:55 AM PDT by Salgak
An American Navy ship fired on a boat in the Persian Gulf today, killing one person and injuring three others aboard the craft, U.S. naval officials told ABC News.
Lt. Greg Raelson, a spokesperson for the Navy's 5th Fleet, which is based in nearby Bahrain, said that a security team aboard the oil supply ship U.S.N.S. Rappahannock fired a .50 caliber machine gun at a "small motor vessel after it disregarded warnings and rapidly approached the U.S. ship" off the coast of Jebel Ali, a city approximately 30 miles from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
But listen to the media, it was "tragic mis-comunication". And who would be willing to bet that the Captain, Officer of the Deck, and Gun crew will be brought up on charges ???
Obama is a bloodthirsty, warmongering tyrant! /sarc
Did you change the title? I read the entire article and there’s not one iota of hand-wringing in it.
BTW - this “broke” yesterday.
There is sort of hand wringing in it if you read closely. The gist I get is the US Navy blundered by firing on an innocent fishing boat (a Pleasure Craft) that WAS NOT Iranian and the man who was killed was Indian which is one of our allies in the middle east.
Watch the associated video from ABCNews, THAT is where the hand-wringing is. . .
what puzzles me, is that this boat was supposedly heading for the shipat a decent speed. they tried to radio, got no response...tried again, again no response, they even tried using the ships’ loudspeaker...(I really doubt they could have been heard or understood from a boat with engines running at speed, but...) and all of this in what language??
now all of this takes time, during which the unidentied vessel is getting nearer and nearer... not they would have had to spot it and identified it as a threat from quite some distance away, no?
If I viewed this correctly...the “articledescribes the occupants of the “pleasure craft” as being 4 Indians and 2 U.A.E. citizens/fishermen...
But in the ABC computer simulation (hehehe) the graphic describes theseindividuals as “victims”...
Understanding exactly how these investigations “used” to go down...The log books, recordings, DRT traces, and radar tracks will be reviewed...The more accurate re-creation will prove that the crew and Captain of that vessel did everything within their ROE to avoid this incident...
But the one damning thing ABC did was illustrate that the “pleasure craft” did turn away (after crossing the bow of the ship, then turned in on a collision course...
To me that is aggressive, and was dealt with appropriately...If the PLeasure craft had paralleled the trackof the ship and passed down the beam of that ship and not closed the CPA range, then I would have been weapons tight on it till we cleared and the ranges opened up between the two vessels...
This was another “test”, regardless of what is divulged to the media and public on this issue...
We shall see how this all plays out soon...
I live in Norfolk, VA. I fish on the Chesapeake Bay. Whenever a Navy ship enters or exits the bay, the Coast Guard comes out ahead of them and runs all the boats away from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel while the Navy ship transits there. There are warning signs all along the Naval Station piers. It’s known we are to stay away from the ships, I even have to pass on the other side of the Little Creek harbor when transiting to the marina on the base (I’m retired Navy).
The USS Cole attack is not forgotten. That’s a good thing.
IMO, any private craft that approaches a USN vessel in that manner is a legitimate target.
Stupid hurts, sometimes it kills.
Indian Hindu or Indian Muslim? Makes a big difference.
At this point what else were they going to do except shoot? The boat may not have understood radio or the flashing lights, but there isn't any mistaking warning shots.
Go Navy!
What I meant was, it makes a big difference as to determining the probability that this was an innocent mistake, versus jihadi probe.
I’ve seen .50 caliber rounds hit the water about 200 yards away, pretty impressive. The water shoots up in the air about 10-15 feet. After the USS Cole, I say Bravo Zulu.
-Frank
The Indian wounded (who say they had no warning, but were speeding up to go ahead of the Rappahannock) have Tamil/Hindu names.
Odd that they didn't notice the .50 cal warning shots. And trying to pass a big ship on the front, rather than the stern(even with having to avoid the wake), seems stupid enough to qualify them for a Darwin Award . No sympathy here.
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