Posted on 07/16/2012 9:32:06 AM PDT by BenLurkin
A U.S. military supply ship fired Monday at a small boat in the Persian Gulf after it came too close, apparently killing one person on board, two U.S. officials said.
The USNS Rappahannock, a fuel resupply ship, fired on what the officials called a "small, white pleasure craft" 10 miles from the Dubai port of Jebel Ali.
The small boat appeared to be headed for that port, the officials said, adding that their information was preliminary. The U.S. ship verbally warned the smaller boat when it was 1,200 yards away and fired at least one warning shot before the decision was made to fire shots to disable the boat, the officials said.
"In accordance with Navy force protection procedures, the sailors on the USNS Rappahannock ... used a series of non-lethal, preplanned responses to warn the vessel before resorting to lethal force," the Navy said in a statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
All U.S.N.S. ships are civilian maned have limited amount of DEFENCE weapons. The 50 cal. was maned by a team of active military.I have sailed on that ship and have nothing but praise for the crew.
But was the warning in English or the local lingo? Or, could it have been a deliberate setup to provoke the incident? Looking for an excuse to close the straits?
I wish they’d sent the piece of crap to Davy Jones’ locker in a ball of napalm. Gettin’ really tired of these ragheads pullin’ USS Cole style attacks.
If procedures were followed, part of the “warning” is stitching the water ahead of the craft with .50 rounds - that’s fairly clear in any language.
Hopefully this wasn’t a case of warning shots missing, though.
The problem is other than being haze gray Rappahanock doesn’t look like a naval vessel.
It might not have looked like one, but at least it behaved like one...
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