The Associated Press reports that a US Coast Guard crew in the Persian Gulf was forced to fire upon an Iranian vessel in self-defense;
Cmdr. Kevin Stephens, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, said personnel on a small boat dispatched from the U.S. Coast Guard patrol boat Monomoy fired a single shot when it saw crew on a nearby Iranian dhow training one of its two .50-caliber machine guns on them and preparing to fire.
“This action by the dhow’s crew demonstrated hostile intent which resulted in the defensive fire by the Coast Guardsmen,” he said.
No Americans were injured in the incident, and it’s unclear if the Iranian boat or anyone aboard were damaged or injured. That’s probably not going to help our relations with those cretins, but they should know not to poke the bear by now.
Get some Coast Guard!
Always Ready.
Back in late 2002/early 2003 the ship I was stationed on was in the gulf. One of the Iranian boghammers* approached our ship. When they got close enough, they turned and ran parallel to us, their crew then saluted the ship and they took off back towards Iran. If they had done anything but that, the crew would have been fish food.
*The name of that class of boat is actually something like Boj Hammar. I choose to call them boghammers.
Dammit O-4 you beat me to it.
My unit actually fired on a vessel in Kuwait in 2004. A small boat was approaching the port at night. Our 25′ boat went through the whole routine: display blue lights, wave them off, play the Arabic tape that says “go away” over our PA, launch flares. Finally we fired a burst from the .50 across the bow. They turned around and left. We always assumed it was a probe of our security to see how close they could get before we’d open fire.
Zero, Rip van Hagel, and the “Vietnam War Hero” will apologize for the distress the U.S caused their boat crew.
Love it. Yea you Muslims sons a bitches, come get some it’s nice and hit for ya, ass holes!!!
I’m glad there’s still commanders in the field and at sea, willing to take a stand and protect their men and mission, without running it by Obama and Kerry first. Too bad we didn’t get a confirmed kill on the Iranians.
Happiness is a warm machine gun and defeated enemies.
What is best in the life of war, if it must be?
“To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.”
We need a Pentagon and CINC like Conan.
Apparently, I am the only one who is wondering why the Coast Guard (part of the Department of HOMELAND Security) is in the Persian Gulf….
I understand that the Coast Guard falls under the Department of the Navy in times of war, but this is not one of those times.
Isn’t the Navy’s role power projection and protection of sea lanes?
TopGoz – sometimes you need to go a long way to guard the coast. The USCG has had folks over there since 2002. The USCG is, at all times, an armed force (see 10 USC 101(a)(4) – “The term ‘armed forces’ means the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard.”
Here’s a discussion of what they’re doing over there:
http://coastguard.dodlive.mil/2011/11/adm-papp-reviews-mission-of-patrol-forces-southwest-asia/
Bottom line – some missions are better suited for WPBs than FFGs and DDGs.
Did that one shot expend their yearly allowance of ammunition?
If hostile intent was truly shown, one shot response is hilarious.
Depends on what weapon fired the one shot.
This ship is sporting a couple of M2s, a Mk19 grenade launcher and 25mm chain gun. Probably fired a 25mm at them. It’ll get your attention if you’re in a little boat.
Too bad it wasn’t a 16-inch.
One shot was all it took. The Iranians are now less one crew member.
Meanwhile, in other news, President Obama says, “I don’t want to put the cart before the horse but we have no strategy in dealing with IS. No need to go to Congress or military leaders until we have a better picture” (paraphrased) Well, he’s just damned late to the party isn’t he? Everybody in the world including IS knew that months and months ago. He says it a complicated issue that will require a regional response. (paraphrased again) In other words, he knows no more about what he’s doing in the Office he holds than he ever has. The worst CINC in American history, bar none. His biggest complaint, in the beliefs of my heart, are that all this just gets in the way of his leisure time, vacations and golf and so forth. The news commentator even said that with Labor Day coming up, he is reticent to do much or make any decisions. REALLY!!!
And since it is true he has no strategy, why tell the world, again, how stupid and dumb assed he really is. He wants to wait until he talks with the allies next week. Why? Because phone service and conference calls to our allies is just too complicated to manage from the Oval Office.
Turd, Turd and Turd again!!!
The telling part of his statement was, “We don’t have a strategy……….yet”.
That pause speaks volumes to me.