Posted on 05/04/2010 1:11:31 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
I know the RG runs both orgs, in Iran.
**** The Iranian aircraft was an unarmed Fokker F27 and remained in the vicinity of the Eisenhower for about 20 minutes before leaving the area, US army officials said. ****
IIRC, the Captain accurately ascertained the airliner was on a direct bearing for the ship and the pilot was on a Jihad mission. He was pooh-poohed as no such thing could ever happen. /s
Our sailors should have lined up on the side and dropped trou when the plane flew by.
My first Navy cruise was on USS Ranger (CVA-61) with Captain John Nicholson Commanding. He was retiring when we returned from WestPac, and he was a crusty old Skipper who was determined to have a good cruise.
We departed out of Alameda and refueled at Pearl Harbor, then headed out across the Pacific for Subic Bay. As soon as we got underway we set Alert 5 F-4s on both bow catapults and we stayed on 5 minute alert until we got to PI.
The Soviets converted Bear Bombers for long range ocean surveillance by installing a “Big Bulge” radar on the nose and a whole bunch of extra fuel tanks and equipment inside. The things could fly forever, and have those distinctive double counter-rotating propellers. They are impressive as hell, and even more so when they intercepted us 2 days or so out of Pearl.
We knew he was coming of course, and had launched the Alert 5s to go out 200 miles and escort him all the way in. They normally came out to take a look at all of the ships that were entering WestPac to see what interesting new things we were bringing with us, and the Bears always did some very low passes as close as they could get without daring to attempt to overfly our flight deck. Some ships actually hoisted a bunch of junk up on the mast and covered it with tarps just to mess with the Soviets and ensure they would take lots of pictures trying to figure out what the hell that thing could be.
As the Bear and escorting Phantoms approached the ship, Captain Nick came over the 1MC and told us he wanted to see the “International salute” given to the Soviets by every hand on deck, and of course everyone was more than happy to flip the Commie bastards off...
Those days it was mostly Cold War games, but I’m quite sure that Ike’s Skipper isn’t looking at anything Iranian that flies with any amusement these days...
Another note about that cruise...our Airwing Commander bought a sailboat while we were in PI; he got one hell of a deal on it too....
When we got ready to sail for home from Subic, CAG had the boat lifted out of the water and secured on a trailer, then had it hoisted onto Ranger’s flight deck where it was secured back behind the Island in the junk yard. It stayed there all the way to Hawaii where we off-loaded it to the pier. He had it towed to a yacht club, outfitted and launched, and he and several other Officers took leave and sailed home to San Diego. Now that’s the way to end a cruise!!
“Our sailors should have lined up on the side and dropped trou when the plane flew by.”
The Muzzies on board would have liked that. The better thing to do is get some of the women on the ship up to the deck and let them take off all their clothes and have their pics taken. The pilot would have been cursing them all the way back to Tehran!
So what. Do you know how many 1,000s of photos I have seen of MARPATs taking photos or video of the ship I was on.
A large number of clueless are making a big deal out of something that has been normal for decades and is perfectly legal.
No country owns international waters/airspace, that is why it is called international.
The SoH inbound channel is in Iranian territorial waters under international law. When we transit we are exercising the right of free passage under the same law. The Iranian’s would be derilict in their duties if they didn’t monitor military movements in their area. Just like there was probably an Omani PGG observing as well, since they own the other half of the SoH.
All the commenters and reporters of this routine event that are playing it up are just demonstrating their ignorance of what goes on in the USN all the time and has been for decades. The days of ordering Iranian aircraft clear at 25nm ended in 1989.
If they break 150 miles, launch Maverick on the Alert Five aircraft.
Ghost Rider, this is Mustang...
Why bother sending a plane? Just pick up the phone and call Obama. I’m sure Obama’s communist buddies in his administration would be happy to give them all our secrets themselves and save th iranians the trouble.
I was not in the USA at the time, but I was deployed with the IAF and we kept close tabs on it.
It was a regularly scheduled flight (and not on an intercept), but the Iranians had a J-4 flying below it, trying to mess with the radar.
Simulateneously, the Iranians were actually attacking the American fleet with little dingy gunboats.
Fog of war; I don’t fault the American captain at all. But it was a mistake.
Yep. Saw plenty of Iranian P-3s when I cruised on Ike in '06-'07.
I am curious what kind of intel Iran thought they'd get. Carrier transits through Hormuz aren't exactly cloaked in secrecy. Carriers pass countless fishing dhows and cargo ships, all with radios aboard. Some of the sea lanes are close enough to be spotted from shore. Did Iran want to know how many planes were on deck? Wikipedia will provide that information.
Call the friggin’ Whitehouse!
You don't think he might have stress tested his joy stick before returning to base? : )
Not a big deal, really. It happens all the time and, honestly, the plane wasn’t close enough to be a threat. As another poster pointed out, you can get pretty detailed pictures of US carriers from a number of commercial sites.
Modifications or changes, anntenas, etc.
While you and I know that all of that is available in open source, dictatorships like Iran never believe that all of that press isn’t deception. They just know that we must be covering something up because they would.
Term for that mentality is projection. When you project what you would do onto someone elses motives/actions.
Then there is another factor. The aircrew might not know what has already been collected. Just working from a standard checklist of things to collect on warships transiting. Done that myself before and found out later that ONI had never got photos of that particular ship...
We can dream...
hmmm. Please cite one.
There were several instances during the period of 1942-1945. Technically, I can’t truly remember them since I was not born yet, but I’ve seen footage of it happening on the History Channel.
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