Posted on 01/29/2016 9:24:15 AM PST by Retain Mike
Several sources confirmed to USNI News that the crews of the two boats, assigned to Coastal Riverine Squadron 3, had misjudged their location when they mistakenly strayed into Iranian waters off of Farsi Island in the middle of the Persian Gulf on Jan. 12 while trying to meet a ship for refueling. The sources said the mistake was a result of human error, not a failure in navigation systems.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.usni.org ...
Thinking of my own time leading small boat detachments, why were they there initially? Was no one paying attention? They now even have GPS. There were two boats, so one could have towed the other. Back in my Old Navy even if I was leading LCM-8 landing craft without radar, I would have had a chart and noted danger bearings. Maybe they should have apologized, but I doubt it?
Could it be the Iranians have a different definition of territorial waters to which they want this Administration and our Navy to subscribe? That seems more likely.
Finally how could the Navy lose track of these boats? Why were the crews not initiating contact? During an amphibious exercise my wave of assault boats were swallowed by a fog. When I saw that fog coming I made sure the flag ship could vector us back to our LPD.
This event directs my memory back to the Cold War involving China as well as the Soviet Union. Navy ships stationed in Yokosuka Japan â€patrolled†through the Taiwan Straits as they transited to Vietnam. Our captain told us that if any Chinese ship tried to intercept us we would fight. The prospect was not that exciting because our heaviest armament were three dual 3in50cal anti-aircraft mounts. But the Pueblo incident was on everyone’s mind and that was going to be our response.
As far as I am concerned everything we have been told by this Administration and their Navy acolytes is a lie.
HERE IS ANOTHER TAKE ON THE INCIDENT SENT BY A FRIEND OF MINE:
Matt Bracken is a former NAVY SEAL Officer
"I hope none of my FB friends are gullible enough to believe the strayed into Iranian waters and had mechanic problems nonsense. I rarely pull out my dusty old trident, but in this case, here goes. I was a Navy SEAL officer in the 1980s, and this kind of operation (transiting small boats in foreign waters) was our bread and butter.
Today, these boats both not only had radar, but multiple GPS devices, including chart plotters that place your boat's icon right on the chart. The claim by Iran that the USN boats "strayed into Iranian waters" is complete bull$h!t.
For an open-water transit between nations, the course is studied and planned in advance by the leaders of the Riverine Squadron, with specific attention given to staying wide and clear of any hostile nation's claimed territorial waters. The boats are given a complete mechanical check before departure, and they have sufficient fuel to accomplish their mission plus extra.
If, for some unexplainable and rare circumstance one boat broke down, the other would tow it, that's why two boats go on these trips and not one! It's called "self-rescue" and it's SOP.
This entire situation is in my area of expertise. I can state with complete confidence that both Iran and our own State Department are lying. The boats did not enter Iranian waters. They were overtaken in international waters by Iranian patrol boats that were so superior in both speed and firepower that it became a "hands up!" situation, with automatic cannons in the 40mm to 76mm range pointed at them point-blank. Surrender, hands up, or be blown out of the water. I assume that the Iranians had an English speaker on a loudspeaker to make the demand. This takedown was no accident or coincidence, it was a planned slap across America's face.
Just watch. The released Sailors will be ordered not to say a word about the incident and the Iranians will have taken every GPS device, chart-plotter etc off the boats, so that we will not be able to prove exactly where our boats were taken.
The "strayed into Iranian waters" story being put out by Iran and our groveling and appeasing State Dept. is utter and complete BS from one end to the other."
HERE IS MY LAST POINT:
The Navy has always operated with two navigational systems. In this case the backup would have been LORAN. Also my commanding officer would never have approved a straight transit that left you out of sight of land most of the way. We would have planned to intercept the shore at least by the latitude of the Iranian island. Then we would have had three navigation systems by adding radar. The refueling would not have involved an unplanned course change, but would have been along the course we gave the Coast Guard.
Adm. Sestak also mentioned that there is a hot line for such incidents ...
Yep, as most of us have said, you can bet that some butter bar will take the fall for this most improbable disgraceful event.
This was orchestrated between Odungo and the Iranians, why I don't know. Maybe so they could get their electronics, etc.
Probably treasonous activity from the White House.
Two boats with nagivation systems (plural) yet somehow they or the US Navy didn’t know where they were but Obama did when he called the enemy to go rescue them. Uh huh and I have a bridge for sale.
I find it difficult to believe that the commanders of two boats are so incompetent that they can both make the same "navigation error" in a very dangerous part of the world.
If they are that incompetent, bust them out of the service. We don't need people that stupid.
2 possibilities:
1. Perfect ambush
2. Obama thought the encounter would provide rich propoganda fodder for the notion that Iran has been rehabilitated and now HELPS the US military. And perfect timing for his State of the Union.
WHO BELIEVES US LEADERSHIP **THESE DAYS**....?
You’d be nuts to join the US military today.
“In this case the backup would have been LORAN.”
Don’t think LORAN is in use anymore. It was decommissioned.
Never mind GPS, I rely on dead reckoning - it tells me that the Obama regime lies like a rug.
I am afraid you are right. An entire generation has lived without it now. It is always a tough day when I am reminded of how old I am getting to be.
I know. *sigh*
I was designing an aircraft nav system recently and was the only one on the team that knew what the LORAN database table was for. I felt real old about then.
Someone gave an Ensign or a JG a map. Oops.
Ping.
How about “Omega”?
I wonder what the Navy now uses as a backup system? It has to be something the does not depend on satellites. Even in days of sail and before accurate clocks, captains used dead-reckoning involving the log and estimating the wind as a backup for celestial fixes and noon sun lines.
funny thing, the sextant is being taught once again.
The backup is another GPS unit. The military considered GPS so “reliable” that they have backup GPS units as the backup.
Even for aircraft nav GPS is becoming the primary navaid, with another GPS unit as backup. There are still VOR, NDB and other navaids routinely used, but GPS is becoming dominant.
P.S. I know reading my above post probably made you dizzy to even think they do that, but they do.
I wrote that about a day after the event on my facebook wall. It’s very outdated. And it’s amazing how those tossed-off facebook remarks have been bouncing around the internet for a few weeks now.
And if the Chinese or Russians blow away the GPS satellites? Or if an overhead aircraft jams reception of GPS signals?
With these Democrats, whenever something bad happens, they round up all the government employees and they go into hiding.
And the Navy had an incident the week before with the Iranians firing off a missile close to one of our aircraft carriers.
So they send out two boats with no over watch?
Stupid stupid stupid.
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