[caper gal 1]

As per the “survivors” take on this event, reeks of total BS.

[robowombat]

After the USS Cole incident I would hope that it is standing orders in the Gulf and Arabian Sea waters that any small vessel approaching to closely can expect a .50 salute.

[pingman]

“We wuz mindin’ our own bidness, on the way to chuch in fack, when rat-a-tat-tat! Day smoked us wit a Ma Deuce!”

[dr_lew]

In a previous thread, I posted the results of my armchair investigation, which to me seemed to reconcile the account of the "fisherman" with the official USN account as per the CNN article, which I take to be unimpeachable.

That is, the circumstances of the encounter jibe with the assumption that the fishing boat was making for a port which took it across the course of the Rappahannock, and that the helmsman was trying to double back to cross behind the larger ship. It's easy for me to imagine that he was simply not receptive to any of the warning attempts, up to the warning shots. When these came, he simply thought they were being shot at, and was not able to realize he was expected to kill the throttle at that point to avoid disaster.

[UCANSEE2]

As per the “survivors” take on this event, reeks of total BS.

The 'survivors' now know exactly how close they can get before being fired upon. Apparently their 'bosses' thought that it was worth the risk. How many 'fishing' poles did they have?