An American Navy ship fired on a boat in the Persian Gulf today, killing one person and injuring three others aboard the craft, a U.S. naval official told ABC News.
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.
The Navy is investigating the incident as details continue to emerge. A Navy official said the offending vessel was a white pleasure craft, but a UAE official told ABC News it was a fishing boat with four Indians and two Emirates on board. There doesn’t appear to be any indication the incident was terror-related, the UAE official said.
The Navy official said it’s not uncommon for Iranian speed craft to harass U.S. ships in the region, but in this case the boat wasn’t Iranian.
“I can’t emphasize enough that this has nothing to do with Iran,” the official said.
If the Cole had done this, and the boat had retreated so that no evidence was available, the skipper would have been immediately relieved of command. We just weren’t serious back then.
Our training scenarios that set of workups said “no blue losses”. Thus, unless we had things locked tight, we aborted. It was to avoid giving Mr. Clinton any probles.
I look forward to his wife apologizing for this one.
The problem is not Iran. The problem is devout Moslems.
Dear Mr. Jihadi,
This is the Browning M2 .50 caliber Machine Gun. It has an effective range of about 2000 yards and can even be used as an anti-aircraft gun and to penetrate some armor plating.
This weapon entered service with my country in 1921 and has served up death to those who asked for it on every continent on the planet Earth since that time. Every US Navy sailor and US Marine in our country is qualified to fire this weapon. Most of these men and women will stand in line for hours just waiting for the opportunity to use this weapon to turn one of your speedy little Zodiac boats into a pile shredded rubber.
We affectionately refer to this weapon as “Ma Deuce” and we do indeed, love our “Ma”
Now, please go away before you get hurt.
Sincerely,
Uncle Sam.
That’s false about every US Navy Sailor’s (capital “S”) being qualified to fire a .50. I know one in my own house who’s not.