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.