Naval Officer Who Apologized To The Iranians Stripped Of Command

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/12/politi...-sailors-iran/

Odds are, the next step is his being asked to resign his commision.

When all of this happenned, I stated that there was no way that the Navy would let this kind of conduct by a Commisioned Officer go unpunished.
JD Barleycorn's Avatar
Sounds a bit too much like Chuck Connors and Bitter Creek (most of you are old enough to remember). Actually the phrase is "relieved of command". He is going to be transferred to some place else where he will exercise little authority. He will be passed over for promotion for the next three cycles and then he will be put out of the navy for their convenience. If he can read the handwriting on the wall (unless he was ordered to do something stupid by someone higher) he will leave on his own.
LexusLover's Avatar
The Iranians stated that John Kerry apologized to them before the release.

Given the recent revelations and admissions regarding this Administration's dealings with the Iranians, I'm leaning toward believing the Iranians. "You can't teach an old dog new tricks."
He shouldn't be relieved because of the apology, he should have been relieved on what a clusterfuck that mission was. I still don't believe the entire story on how two boats became disabled and off course.
LexusLover's Avatar
I still don't believe the entire story on how two boats became disabled and off course. Originally Posted by gnadfly
Bay of Pigs!
He shouldn't be relieved because of the apology, he should have been relieved on what a clusterfuck that mission was. I still don't believe the entire story on how two boats became disabled and off course. Originally Posted by gnadfly
I'm with you on that ! With GPS and satellite navigation and other navigational aides, how in the hell do they go off course ? I understand that one of the boats broke down on the way and the other stopped to help when they both " drifted " into Iranian waters. Or at least that the story that's been fed to the gullible media. The same media that odummer's spokesperson said that they crafted a message for and called stupid. I don't think we're getting all of the story or even the right story.
  • DSK
  • 05-13-2016, 10:04 AM
http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/12/politi...-sailors-iran/

Odds are, the next step is his being asked to resign his commision.

When all of this happenned, I stated that there was no way that the Navy would let this kind of conduct by a Commisioned Officer go unpunished. Originally Posted by Jackie S
When Assup was in charge of a small commissary in Vietnam, he had to apologize for the sloppy goo that ended up on everyone's cigarette packs...

He should have been severely punished.
LexusLover's Avatar
With GPS and satellite navigation and other navigational aides, how in the hell do they go off course ? Originally Posted by Rey Lengua
That's simple.....this is a rhetorical question ONLY ....

When you head to an incall do you have your "GPS and satellite navigation and other navigational aides" turned on? When traveling UTR it's "lights out and radio off" .... "the rule" is ... if you can "see" or "hear" them, they can see and hear you. You are on your own.
Yssup Rider's Avatar
When Assup was in charge of a small commissary in Vietnam, he had to apologize for the sloppy goo that ended up on everyone's cigarette packs...

He should have been severely punished. Originally Posted by DSK
LMAO!
JD Barleycorn's Avatar
My personal belief is that this was ordered by the higher ups in DC in order to give the Iranians a chance to show their cooperation. That island they drifted by...it was way off course of the shortest way between point A and point B. It was also known to be a Republican Guard naval base. This stinks to high heaven.
LexusLover's Avatar
John Kerry is in "hog heaven" with the duffus CIC ....

The_Waco_Kid's Avatar
reading this report, this sounds like a clusterfuck from before the start!

The report found that several factors may have contributed to the failure:


• The sailors had never made the trip before.


• They had been up most of the night before conducting maintenance on one of the boats that had broken down.


• They had to "cannibalize" parts from a third boat in order to have two working vessels.


• They then experienced problems with their satellite communications gear.
All of this led them to leaving port later than planned.


In addition, they did not conduct a standard operational briefing for themselves prior to setting sail, during which they would have fully reviewed their route and navigation plan.
The approved navigation path would have had them sail in international waters between the Iranian coastline and the eastern side of Farsi Island as they moved south toward Bahrain. Instead, they were significantly off course, sailing on the western side of the island.

in the Military, the commanding officer takes the fall. that's the way it is. as commanding officer, he's responsible for the conduct, training and actions of the men under his command.

no mission briefing? FAIL.

over-reliance on hi-tech? that a good old fashioned briefing and some basic map reading skills could have avoided? FAIL

fatigue? i might cut this guy some slack here, but i won't. in battle, fatigue must be overcome. you can't just call time-out in the middle of a firefight. the Germans hopped their troops up on {forbidden subject} to overcome fatigue. it had .. side effects as you might imagine. the commanding officer should have been aware the sailors had been up overnight to fix a boat. he could have assigned a replacement crew. if he wasn't it's still his fault, as his junior officers are still his responsibility. FAIL.
So, what was the mission and why the urgency?
He shouldn't be relieved because of the apology, he should have been relieved on what a clusterfuck that mission was. I still don't believe the entire story on how two boats became disabled and off course. Originally Posted by gnadfly
Anybody here remember the Pueblo incident? The Pueblo was a US Navy spy ship sent into North Korean waters for at least two days to measure their response. The US does this (or at least used to) to see what we should do in case of a real incident. That way we know where their radar units are, what fighter groups are put on alert, and much much more info that would otherwise be next to impossible to verify.

The Pueblo was not there because the ship's captain, of his own volition, decided to sail it there. For at least two days the US Air Force could have blown both of the North Korean gunships out of the water. Didn't happen. Why not?

If anyone should be punished for the Iranian mess, it should be the higher ups who thought that it would be a good idea to "disable" our ship(s) to see what the Iranians' response would be. Kerry or Obama...? Idk. It won't happen because all of that stuff runs downhill and the buck doesn't stop with them. It stops with us grunts that are ordered to carry out their missions.

My point is that if we are going to order our men (and now women) into harm's way, support the mission. Nobody with an ounce of brains believes that it was an accident for our ships to be in Iranian territory. It was planned, probably several months prior. The Armed Forces have contingency plans for just about everything.