The recent carrier incident was a sign of things to come if unchecked. I am just surprised that a follow up incident was so close to the one prior. Some political pundit was suggesting it as an attempt to embarrass Obama in his SOU address.
I guess patience is a virtue. Let's see how the WH spin this one.
The latest excuse that they somehow strayed over 50 miles off course into Iranian waters is just more utter nonsense. They are backing away from the mechanical failure reason and now throwing this against the wall to see if it will stick.
On these missions, the planning is in depth. Each vessel has multiple GPS devices and a charted course.
I have a close friend who is a former Lt. Cmdr. in the US Navy SEALs,, he posted the following to his own Facebook page and has given me permission to post the following.
"I rarely pull out my dusty old trident, but in this case, here goes. I was a Navy SEAL officer in the 1980s, and this kind of operation (transiting small boats in foreign waters) was our bread and butter. Today, these boats both not only have radar, but multiple GPS devices, including chart plotters that place your boat's icon right on the chart. The claim by Iran that the USN boats "strayed into Iranian waters" is complete bull$#it.
"For an open-water transit between nations, the course is studied and planned in advance by the leaders of the Riverine Squadron, with specific attention given to staying wide and clear of any hostile nation's claimed territorial waters. The boats are given a complete mechanical check before departure, and they have sufficient fuel to accomplish their mission plus extra. If, for some unexplainable and rare circumstance one boat broke down, the other would tow it, that's why two boats go on these trips and not one! It's called "self-rescue" and it's SOP.
"This entire situation is in my area of expertise. I can state with complete confidence that both Iran and our own State Department are lying. The boats did not enter Iranian waters. They were overtaken in international waters by Iranian patrol boats that were so superior in both speed and firepower that it became a "hands up!" situation, with automatic cannons in the 40mm to 76mm range pointed at them point-blank. Surrender, hands up, or be blown out of the water. I assume that the Iranians had an English speaker on a loudspeaker to make the demand. This takedown was no accident or coincidence, it was a planned slap across America's face.
"Just watch. The released sailors will be ordered not to say a word about the incident, and the Iranians will have taken every GPS device, chart-plotter etc off the boats, so that we will not be able to prove where our boats were taken."
The "strayed into Iranian waters" story being put out by Iran and our groveling and appeasing State Dept. is utter and complete BS from one end to the other." - Former Lt. Cmdr, US Navy SEALs
