"Look at me! I am your prisoner now!"
Posted on 04/20/2026 3:24:49 PM PDT by Jacquerie
On Sunday, Marines from the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli fast-roped from helicopters onto the deck of the Iranian cargo ship M/V Touska to take custody of the vessel, the first seizure of the week-long U.S. military blockade of Iranian ports. The Touska was first disabled by sailors on the Navy destroyer USS Spruance, who fired several shots from its 5-inch MK 45 gun at the vessel’s engine room.
Carried out under the cover of darkness, the operation highlighted the capabilities of a small, highly trained group of Marines known as a Maritime Raid Force, or MRF, that specializes in boarding and seizing vessels at sea.
Currently, the 2,200-strong 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit embarked on the Tripoli Amphibious Ready Group is deployed to the Middle East. A U.S. official confirmed to Task & Purpose that the Marines who boarded the M/V Touska were with the unit’s MRF.
A retired Marine special operations officer told Task & Purpose that embarked MRFs train for Visit, Board, Search and Seizure, or VBSS, missions, like the operation to take control of the Iranian cargo vessel.
In another VBSS operation, a Maritime Raid Force successfully retook the container M/V Magellan Star in September 2010, capturing nine Somali pirates and freeing the ship’s crew, all without firing a shot.
“You need people who can do it,” the retired Marine said. “They’ve got the mental prowess to kind of overcome that fear and execute it. Then, if they got into any kind of shooting onboard that ship, they have to have people who are very capable with what’s called close-quarter battle marksmanship. They have to be able to make split-second decisions and move very quickly inside of confined spaces, where you need people who have been well rehearsed in doing that.
(Excerpt) Read more at taskandpurpose.com ...
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"Look at me! I am your prisoner now!"
Marines who deploy on Navy ships are badassed combatants.
Each and every one of them.
Crack shots, a specialty, and fearless.
They bring hell wherever they go.
bkmk
Semper Fi.
L
Are we really tasking our military to take down a cargo ship?
Having announced the military policy of a naval blockade, who besides the military would you have enforce it?
Yep, it's called a warprize.
Not sure what you mean by “take down” but they were ordered to seize the ship and take control of it and its cargo. Do you not see that as a proper military action for a vessel that tries to violate a blockade?
“Are we really tasking our military to take down a cargo ship?”
IDK military strategy so IDK if it would change our approach (although it seems it would), but I’ve seen it reported that crews of cargo ships (particularly Iranian flagged) may be be heavily armed and possibly IRGC - and that the cargo may be arms/missiles/other military supplies.
Why would you allow the cargo which could be armaments or materials needed for support to be delivered?
[Are we really tasking our military to take down a cargo ship?]
Yup. When I was with the 31st MEU(SOC), it was one of our missions: Visit Board Search and Seizure (VBSS). We’ve been doing it since the early 1990s.
“Are we really tasking our military to take down a cargo ship?”
Iran folks are gonna try and weasel out of any agreement initially. We can expect to be using force to enforce whatever agreement they make. They’re not much of a threat to us now so this won’t be real hard. And the end result of a clear path thru the strait for all nations to move oil will benefit everyone.
Seeing how we obtain and confirm their uranium will be interesting. But the whole globe would prefer that kind of interesting to Iran with a nuke interesting.
Okay you’re so smart how is this supposed to be done and by who? How many cargo ships in hostile waters under a navel blocade have you seized? What techniques did you use and who helped?
I hope the ship wasn’t filled with Mike Lindell My pillow orders. We are interdicting OFAC flagged vessels. From the look of it the Iranians are offloading stuff from these OFAC flagged vessels before running them thru. And Trump is listening to our CIA ( the ones that want to kill him and carried out several coups against him.} Good luck with that. I’m sure they will find chinese spyware on it.. I just know.
Arrr!
Niteowl77's great-great-grandfather was a boat-borne Army infantryman in an early combined-arms operation ("United States Mississippi Marine Brigade") that included capturing and/or burning side- and stern-wheel steamboats on the Mississippi River in 1863. Sometimes they did the same to plantations and even whole towns.
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