On station at the Mekong Delta, I had one ambiguous situation when a VN fishing boat approached close aboard our LST at night and the guy began yelling at me. I called the captain, who had completed an in-country tour as a junk force advisor. He was able to understand I had wandered into his fishing nets. That was really helpful information, because I could have wrapped his monofilament line around the packing gland that protected the propeller shaft from letting in water. After scoring the gland badly, we would have had to continuously pump the shaft alley and been drydocked when we returned to Japan. All very embarrassing.
The guy never showed a weapon and stayed on our starboard quarter, so I didn’t have to figure out where the safety was on the M-79.
Great story and thanks for being there.
I’m not sure the Iranians care about our warnings, our protests and our strong statements. They don’t seem impressed enough to deter their aggressive acts.
They will only get the message when we do something that sends an unmistakably clear message.
With the way Trump has locked down Iran - the Iranians are now oil Importers! So, without oil revenues, Iran will not be able to afford making trouble in Middle East for much longer.
American capital ships operating in the narrow, shallow Gulf have always been in great danger. Their defensive systems are best suited for deep blue water. The Iranians have purchased state of the art stealthy Chinese made shore to ship stealth missiles.The shores of the Gulf are fortified with them The Chinese made a huge effort designing these missiles. They designed these missiles to sweep the Taiwan Strait of hostile naval elements when they invade Taiwan. It would be a mistake to underestimate their effectiveness. The sailors on those ships would have very little time to react if they are launched especially in conjunction with an asymmetrical attack. That asymmetrical attack would consist of speedy small craft or speed boats armed with missiles or acting as suicide boats. The Iranians have been making faux attack runs at American capital ships whenever they can. This results in multiple “alerts” and drills on those ships that inevitably leads to dangerous complacency. One of those runs at the ships may be the real thing. It is imperative that the US Navy make it clear that any such “run” is a hostile act and will be met with a definitive defensive response.
100m is too close.
Shoot me. Sink em. Then warn them!
The safety was that little sliding thingy behind the barrel latch. Another bit of absolutely useless information left over from my misspent youth.
Hey, no more warnings, next time they harass one of our ships, blow them to bits!
The only effective "warning" will be 2 or 3 large Iranian-navy ships slipping slowly to the bottom...
Of course, obunghole's Pentagon (in perpetuity) will never allow this to happen... Unless we get a president who believes the most efficient way to clean out an over-filled toilet is to flush it... Using a "plunger" if necessary...