Posted on 01/17/2016 1:57:49 PM PST by Taxman
CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, January 18, 2016
Iranian coup: A tale of two U.S. Navy vessels
Last week, the U.S. Navy dispatched two of its fearsomely armed Riverine Command Boats (RCBs) to patrol between Kuwait and Bahrain. Somehow, the RCBs were seized by the Iranian Navy; the crewmembers arrested, and -- even though the U.S. and Iran are not technically at war -- treated as Prisoners of War (POWs). How could this happen?
The Swedish-designed, U.S.- manufactured RCBs cost $2.8 million per copy. Each RCB carries six machine guns, to include a .50 caliber Gatling gun, plus grenade launchers. Covered with armor plating able to deflect AK-47 fire, the RCB’s 49.4 mile-per-hour top speed means RCBs can outrun every known surface warship.
To guard against surprise attack, RCBs carry the Sea FLIR III infrared sensor system, thermal imaging, a laser rangefinder, and long-range radar. Navigation is by a top-of-the line GPS and chart plotter system, along with traditional chart and compass back-up. The RCB’s world-wide communications gear nets with ships, aircraft, and ground forces.
Operating in pairs, the RCBs provide each other with mutual fire support. If one RCB is disabled, the other RCB can tow it to safety. Thus, the question arises: How could two RCBs lose their ability to navigate at the same time and stray into Iranian waters? And how could two world-class weapons platforms be seized by the, arguably, inferior Iranian Navy?
Apparently, one of the RCBs had a propulsion problem and radioed U.S. 5th Fleet in Bahrain for assistance. Congressman Louis Gohmert (R) of Texas claims the Obama White House intervened, asked the Iranian Navy to provide assistance, and ordered the U.S. 5th Fleet to stand down.
By long-standing naval custom, disabled boats found in territorial waters are rendered assistance, and simply escorted back into international waters. Their crews are not subjected to POW treatment or put on world-wide video display, looking like criminals.
But, instead of being treated as distressed vessels exercising the mariners’ right of innocent passage, the Iranians arrested the crew members, treated them as POWs, and, somehow, got the officer-in-charge to make filmed statements praising the Iranians and saying the treatment the crew received was: "Fantastic."
Absent Congressman Gohmert’s explanation -- citing White House intervention -- it appears Articles II and V of the U.S. military’s Code of Conduct were violated. Article II states: "I will never surrender of my own free will. If in command, I will never surrender the members of my command while they still have the means to resist." Article V reads: "When questioned, should I become a prisoner of war, I am required to give name, rank, service number, and date of birth. I will evade answering further questions to the best of my ability. I will make no oral or written statements disloyal to my country and its allies or harmful to their cause."
Alternatively, could it be that the White House-imposed Rules of Engagement (ROE) robbed the RCBs of their "means to resist"? Were the RCB’s awesome weapons even permitted to be loaded? Congress should demand to see the Operations Order under which the two RCBs left Kuwait for Bahrain and demand copies of all the communications between the RCBs, U.S. 5th Fleet, and the White House. Meanwhile, the RCB crews are left twisting in the wind.
Nationally syndicated columnist, William Hamilton, is a laureate of the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame, the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma University Army ROTC Wall of Fame, and is a recipient of the University of Nebraska 2015 Alumni Achievement Award. He was educated at the University of Oklahoma, the George Washington University, the Infantry School, the U.S Naval War College, the University of Nebraska, and Harvard University.
©2016. William Hamilton.
I was stating a logical breakdown reason where the boat would not be able to go on either engine. A breakdown I don't find unbelievable as I worked with Navy small craft engines and seen a lot happen to them. I was even on duty one night on one when we were following order by the officer and grounded in Vience, Italy. Hey we told him LOL. He had a compass and a map. We had landmarks, had been on duty all day and remembered them, and were experienced.
If someone high up the Chain of Command in a nation far away in a White Hut had knowingly sent a Navy ship into harms way it would not have been a first. Pueblo was such an incident and LTCDR Boucher was not warned of events in NK and that he was being intercepted by NK waiting on him. His ship was about as well armed as those two boats meaning two 50 cals IIRC. I think LBJ welcomed that incident to deflect from his corruption.
BTW I don't fault Boucher nor his crew for Pueblo because The Pentagon ignored and scoffed at his concerns about carrying Classified material and equipment without a means to to a fast and efficient emergency destruction. You have to have explosives to scuttle post WW2 ships. You can't just flood and sink them and DFM is hard to get to burn on it's own.
There was no engine problem !!! They have damned ropes!! Just haul the broken boat back home. This is madness!!
Obama is on his hands and knees, while Valerie Jarrett is standing right behind him.
voluntary capitulation does not result in a coup
Yep, wonder what was delivered?
The last part gets me steamed the most!!!
Just why did we even vote in 2014???
Bunch of GOPe Traitors and LIARS.
I had also considered the possibility of bad fuel, but it just seems unlikely. This whole story is fishy. These people are careful!
Figures.....traitor bastards...!!
Fart in their general direction.
Someday there will be an accounting of the numbers of times 0Obama and Clinton and Kerry and Rice committed treason. Equally noteworthy will be an accounting of the craven GOPe who sat idly by and did nothing. May their descendants be shamed.
That picture needs to be posted a lot more often.
No “mechanical breakdown” or “getting lost”. The whole thing was orchestrated, like the coincidental prisoner swaps, as part of the secret agreements with Iran to somehow justify the Nobel “Peace” Prize for Obama to share with an ayatollah.
vessels, Southack wrote:
Don’t be dumb. Recognize a cover story when you see it.
Riverine craft are literal boats. They don’t patrol blue water.
On the other hand, they do extractions for our SpecOps.
Now, if a pair of riverine boats are on patrol and 1 boat breaks down, the other boat tows it to safety (e.g. out of Iranian waters).
...but...if they are on point waiting on an extraction, then the 2 boats will sit still. No towing.
Those 2 riverine boats transited blue water, sat still on point, and were waiting because their mission was to extract our boys from Farsi Island (probably HALO entry onto the Island).
Since both boats sailed under their own power when the Iranians later released them, it is doubly safe to say that they had no mechanical breakdown.
Nope.
They were waiting on SEALs or NERT to exfiltrate Farsi Island, and they sat there until the bitter end, choosing capture rather than evasion, giving our guys the best possible chance of extraction.
Yes, our sailors on those 2 riverine probably did cry when captured by the Iranians, but not because they were captured...but because they saw something awful happen to the guys they were supposed to extract.
Later, there will be a “training accident” somewhere else in the world to explain the deaths of our boys who died on Farsi Island this week...probably a dozen or so lost. .......
Obastard has sent other seals to their death...this is believable and the GOPe will do nothing.
That is a plausible scenario.
You can see the arms and some of the ammo in videos released by the Iranians. At least a couple of Dillon M134s, at least a couple of M240s, rifles, etc. The boats normally also have an M2 on board, photos of the two captured boats during training in November show the M2s.
The boats have lots of sensors, including radar, etc. so they should have known what was coming long before it got there. And, assuming that both boats were operational, they are among the fastest boats in existence, and have armor that is supposed to withstand the typical AK-47 round.
Great link, thanks.
Before a very serious open-water transit between nations/duty stations, boats are given a NASCAR-level mechanical checkout. They don’t “break down” and if one did, the other just tows it and keeps trucking.
Sorry, but if I am out there and another nation tries to take over my boat, tank or fox hole, it is game on. You do not just throw up your hands and suddenly show your french side by surrendering. I personally believe that just giving up like that is a court-martial offense. What if they had surrendered a top secret weapon’s system when they did that? Just give the enemy the weapon to keep and use to make their own just like it. Like the Iranians did with that drone plane we lost over Iran. And there is no way, NO WAY IN HELL I WOULD HAVE STINKING APOLOGIZED!!!! They would have just had to put a bullet between my eyes. Damn!!! Is that what the homo-za-Zaaa-sion of our military has resulted in????
***but it convinces me that this Idiot in Chief is beyond stupid.
Please tell me you aren’t just realizing this***
Obama is anything but stupid. Evil, yes. Manchurian president, yes. Calculating and manipulative, yes. Stupid? I don’t think so.
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