U.S. Navy ship fires at boat in Persian Gulf

CNN ^ | Barbara Starr,

[msc164]

All U.S.N.S. ships are civilian maned have limited amount of DEFENCE weapons. The 50 cal. was maned by a team of active military.I have sailed on that ship and have nothing but praise for the crew.

[JimRed]

They got plenty of warning.

But was the warning in English or the local lingo? Or, could it have been a deliberate setup to provoke the incident? Looking for an excuse to close the straits?

[backwoods-engineer]

I wish they’d sent the piece of crap to Davy Jones’ locker in a ball of napalm. Gettin’ really tired of these ragheads pullin’ USS Cole style attacks.

[Strategerist]

If procedures were followed, part of the “warning” is stitching the water ahead of the craft with .50 rounds - that’s fairly clear in any language.

Hopefully this wasn’t a case of warning shots missing, though.

[Strategerist]

The problem is other than being haze gray Rappahanock doesn’t look like a naval vessel.

[msc164]

U.S.N.S. stands for United States Navel Ship. It is not owned by the Navy, but by the government. Some of the older ships were once operated by the Navy, but were decommissioned and given to MSC/Military Sealift Command out of Virginia, if I remember.

[Cvengr]

It might not have looked like one, but at least it behaved like one...