Posted on 01/15/2016 7:15:15 AM PST by pabianice
Edited on 01/15/2016 8:50:32 AM PST by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
TAMPA, Florida — Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Thursday it appears a navigational error caused the crews of two Navy boats to stray into Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf, where they were detained overnight by Iran and released.
"It does appear — the information that they have given us and through their commanders — that they did stray accidentally into Iranian waters due to a navigation error," Carter said in an interview in Miami with Fusion network. Later, he flew to Tampa to meet with leaders of U.S. Central Command, which oversees the U.S. military in the Middle East.
(Excerpt) Read more at stripes.com ...
Yep.
Like the phoney maps when we bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.
This whole thing was a setup from the beginning.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Thursday it appears a navigational error caused the crews of two Navy boats to stray into Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf, where they were humiliated, forced to confess, and detained overnight by Iran and finally reluctantly released.
Maybe Defense Secretary Ash Carter should resign in shame because his ineffective policies will continue to lead to failures by our armed forces.
How could this even happen? Where was the mother ship? Were they not in constant contact with the two Navy boats? Do they not know how to use GPS? Ash Carter should resign in shame; he is incompetent.
"Why is there a fence here?"
Complete BS-a weird incident that could not have happened the way it has been described. There is no truth from this govn forthcoming now or anytime. Even the Pentagon and the FBI are in the tank-pathetic.
Our own Travis debunked this the other day. These boats have multiple redundant navigation systems, including GPS, electronic charts etc, and travel in twos specifically so if one has a failure, the other can take it in tow immediately. Further, the courses they sail are always plotted out in advance just so this kind of thing can’t happen.
The video released on the Telegraph website shows 3-5 center-console fishing boats surrounding the two patrol boats. There is no reason (other than suicidally-restrictive ROE) that such craft could pose a threat to the obviously-heavily-armed Navy boats, even if they had crossed into Iranian waters. This had to have been a setup of some kind.
During the evening meeting, I get really pi$$ed off at the BC's monologue. When he finished, I asked for a few minutes, and I absolutely lit into every platoon leader (I was wearing dual hats of XO & Maintenance Officer). My moral authority came from being the only officer that had successfully taken 3 of those 4 platoons through ARTEPS. I went through the list of duties for each member in their squads, to tell them how to put on a dog and pony show for the evaluators the next day.
When I was finished (10-15 minutes later), I was still steaming from the utter lack of leadership displayed by the officers. I'd put my heart and soul into that battery for nearly two years, and these guys were effing it up.
As I made my way back to my maintenance section, I bumped into the chief evaluator, a major whom I had known for at least a year. He was standing outside the command post, and heard everything I said. He smiled at me and said, "that was beautiful LT."
For my efforts, I earned the worst efficiency report of my career. It was such a joke that the Group Commander said so in his rebuttal to what my Battery and Battalion Commander said.
I really would like to examine this further.
Both boats do not have navigation. Every sailor who has a cell phone with GPS doesn’t have navigation. Apparently the Iranians do as they found the boats. I am assuming the Gulf is pretty big and if the Iranians found the American boats, wouldn’t it be safe to say, the Americans saw the Iranian boats?
If I had to put on a tinfoil hat, I would say that the satellite that these boats use for navigation and detection were turned off and the Iranians were alerted to the position of the American boats.
By whom?
There were 2 boats
BOTH have GPS.
BOTH have radar.
Both commanders will plot the course via map and compass before embarking.
Kuwait to Bahrain is a straight line. Set your course and your good to go.
NEVER should they have come within 20 miles (probably more like 30-40 miles) of Iranian waters.
The Harry S Truman is in the Gulf, stationed off of Dubai.
An AWAC should have known where they were.
They were probably no more than 20 miles off shore of Saudi Arabia. King Abdul Aziz naval base is just north of Bahrain. WE have assets there and Saudi Arabia is our ally, so their assets are there also.
The overall trip is less than 300 miles.
Farsi Island is about 1/3 of the way. Less than 100 miles.
HOW do you end up 20 (more like 30-40) miles off course, in 100 miles?
HOW do BOTH boats have mechanical problems?
HOW do BOTH boats have navigation problems.
Communications???
Why not call upon our own assets in the region?
Why not call upon the assets of our allies in the region?
More than likely, our boats left Kuwait Naval Base. Did we have no other assets there?
Did Kuwait have no assets to help us with?
Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait was probably within 100 miles.
We have 2 naval bases in Bahrain. Both considered our most important in the entire ME.
YEAH...THIS THING STINKS TO HIGH HEAVEN
Look up Kuwait Naval Base on a map and draw a straight line to Bahrain.
How do 2 boats get so far off to end up in Iranian waters???
Carter, Kerry and Obama will never tell the truth. They are too busy bending over for the Iranians. Obama was telling us how strong we are while 10 Americans were being held hostage. He stinks beyond anything on earth. And the “commander” who was all over tv apologizing needs to be court martialed.
I’m guessing it was a set up so Obama could release ten terrorists from Gitmo the day our sailors were returned to us.
A Lieutenant in the Navy is an 0-3 in case you forgot.
Vulcaneer here, did my platoon time in 1AD in Germany 77-78, XO time there too afterwards, Battery Command at the 101st 82-84. I loved the Vulcans but supporting an Armor Bn in Germany was tough because the tankers had no idea what we did or what do to with us.
I think it might have been another "technology transfer". You know, like "accidently" shipping a missile to Cuba. At any rate we'll never know because nobody will ever ask the crew what really happened.
What's telling is that nothing is leaking out from anywhere (yet), and I'm guessing (again, just a WAG) at this point, that the crews themselves initially lied about what happened. They probably weren't too inclined to say "Yes Admiral, I decided it would be fun to find some stupid little deserted island out here and have a party."
The OIC of that little flotilla is likely in a world of fecal matter right now.
Any sensitive equipment get thrown overboard? Or did the Iranians get it all?
I was thinking almost exactly along the lines of what you said.
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