[barmag25]

Was the American vessel military or an American flagged commercial vessel?

[Nervous Tick]

>> or an American flagged commercial vessel?

Not sure those are armed well enough to sink a 30ft boat.

I’m pretty sure they’re not *supposed* to be, anyway.

[mojito]

Details are sketchy at the moment, but it appears to have been a US Naval vessel.

[mandaladon]

A spokesperson for the Navy's 5th Fleet, which is based in nearby Bahrain, said that a security team aboard the oil supply ship U.S.N.S. Rappahannock fired a .50 caliber machine gun at a "small motor vessel after it disregarded warnings and rapidly approached the U.S. ship" off the coast of Jebel Ali, a city approximately 30 miles from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/us-navy-fires-ship-persian-gulf-dead/story?id=16787035#.UARK7pG0KSo

[FDNYRHEROES]

Was the American vessel military or an American flagged commercial vessel?

USNS Rappahanock is a US government owned vessel operated by the Navy's Military Sealift Command, using a combination civilian (civil service) and regular navy crew. The Navy MILDET has a ship security component which mans the ship's defensive weapons which includes a MA2 50-caliber machine gun.