He leaves out that iran had hundreds of land-based super and Hypersonic anti-ship missiles within 20 miles of our ships. Had they wanted to this time, they could have killed most of our sailors and sunk three of our ships.
We need to go in and take out their missiles in a preemptive strike to prevent this from happening in the future.
Actually, we of course knew about the Chinese Silkworms and other anti-ship missile capabilities of Iran. We deployed EA-6B prowlers to disable those missiles using jamming capabilities to neutralize their fire control radar. Some missile launching sites were mobile, and aircraft armed with AGM-88 HARM missiles were patrolling the coast where they could possibly have been set up within range of our ships - just waiting for them to turn on their radar so they could be destroyed.
I was in the air traffic control tower on the USS Enterprise that day.
That is not to say none of our sailors were in ‘harm’s way’ that day. There were SEAL teams active on oil platforms, and some small craft engaged in direct combat (this predates the suicide zodiac used in Yemen). It is also possible that Iran could have launched missiles at our aircraft - but I think it was clear this would have been futile given our capabilities vs theirs. I think there’s a lesson for us today in the actions Iran took almost 20 years ago.
Iran had fiery rhetoric and from time to time did some crazy stuff (then as now) but they did not want to escalate in the face of certain defeat. In fact, given our resolute reaction to the mining in the Gulf, shortly after this incident, an iranian airliner was shot down. Do a search on the USS Vincennes in wikipedia. Rhetoric from the mullahs followed about how Iran was a peace loving nation and could not stoop to combat an evil nation such as America who would shoot down a jetliner full of innocent civilians, etc. Bottom line: they halted their aggressive stance, blaming America’s unfair fighting.
Some rumors around the Navy said at the time that the jet that was shot down was ‘squawking’ F4 Phantom (Identify Friend or Foe signals indicated it was a fighter despite radar signature to the contrary). Wikipedia mentions these claims, but who knows? Another one that Wikipedia doesn’t mention but was going around the Navy shortly after the incident was photos shown on Iranian TV of the deceased passengers that were hauled out of the water shortly after the shootdown appeared to be either fully clothed or completely naked, in various stages of decomposition, some with suspicious wounds (looked like gunshot) and some were ‘coincidentally’ political opponents of the mullahs. Too bad Free Republic wasn’t around then our we could have proved those claims to be “RATHER” suspect.
Is it beyond the realm of rational thought that the mullahs staged the incident - putting bodies of political opponents and recently deceased on the plane, fitted the aircraft with an IFF transponder from one of the F4’s we had sold to the Shah (they certainly had plenty), and then sent the plane on a path knowing it would be shot down? As things appeared to unfold, the mullahs had a way of starkly contrasting their ‘peace loving ways’ vs the US’s boundless evil. The Wiki article doesn’t do much to defend us, but if that incident happened now - what would we think knowing what we know about Ahmadinejad and the Iranian theocracy? Its a twist on suicide bombers - not to kill us but to humiliate us...in the hands of our media today - imagine an Abu Ghraib like event where the war mongers shot down a civilian plane? We’d have human interest stories on each victim for years!
One other incident of note that NEVER gets mentioned but should (no controversy/tinfoil hat here) is that a few months after returning to the US, the captain of the Vincenne’s wife’s minivan was bombed. I think that was the first terrorist attack on US Soil by Hezbollah or the Iranian Republican Guard...they should really look into that incident.