Don’t Give Up the Ship

DON’T GIVE UP THE SHIP

This was posted by a friend of mine on Facebook. I had no link to the source, there was no link given on Facebook, all I could do was presume it came from here, and I was correct in that guess: Bob Lonsberry. This is a great piece of work and every word makes perfect sense. Please read it all, it IS a bit long but it is very worthwhile.

Bob Lonsberry © 2016

It’s unfathomable.

The account of two U. S. Navy vessels being seized by the Iranian navy earlier this week seems completely implausible.

No part of it makes any sense.

The story is that two river patrol boats – bristling modern-day incarnations of the Vietnam swift boats – were navigating south from Kuwait to Bahrain. At some point, via some means, the two boats, with their contingent of five sailors each, surrendered to the Iranians.

Two accounts have been offered as to how that happened. The first was that one of the vessels lost its engine and that they both then drifted into Iranian waters. The other was that the two boats had been operating fine, but inadvertently navigated into Iranian territory.

Simply put, they got lost.

Neither account seems possible.

First off, if one of the boats broke down, and the sailor aboard trained to tend the engine couldn’t fix it, the other boat would merely take it in tow and they would proceed on their way. That is not a novel maritime undertaking.

The second scenario – oops, we got lost – is even less likely. It turns out that navigation and navigation equipment are kind of a high priority for the Navy. Boats don’t get lost. Highly technical navigation equipment on both boats would have told crew members exactly where they were.

And in the unlikely event that both boats lost all electronic navigational equipment, and the compasses lost track of magnetic north, there is the simple fact that sailing from Kuwait to Bahrain pretty much involves nothing more complex than keeping the shore on your starboard side. And should you lose sight of shore, and can remember that the map has safety to the west and danger to the east, you’d think that the position of the sun in the sky or the fact that prevailing winds in the Persian Gulf in the winter are northwesterly, would somehow have allowed our sailors to find the Saudi shoreline instead of Iranian waters.

And all of that presumes that these two boats were operating alone in the open seas, which they presumably were not. There is, in fact, a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier battle group operating in the Persian Gulf.

The USS Harry S Truman owns the Persian Gulf these days, and the significant American military presence in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait – lands immediately proximate to the waters where our sailors were operating – makes us the biggest dog on the block.

And we’ve got radar and helicopters and airplanes and stuff like that.
And if an American vessel breaks down at sea, or strays from course, under those operational conditions, there are a lot of American assets that would both notice the problem and be able to offer relief.

Yet no one did.

We’re supposed to believe nobody radioed a couple of inexplicably lost boats to ask where they were going? When one of them supposedly broke down, a carrier battle group had no means to come to their assistance?

That makes no sense.

It’s completely unbelievable.

So is the apparent conduct of the sailors in the face of a supposed challenge by the Iranian military.

If one of the vessels was disabled, as is claimed, and hostile craft are approaching, bringing with them the prospect of capture and captivity, don’t you put all 10 sailors on the able boat, sink the disabled boat, and race the bad guys back to international waters?

From the Iranian video, it looks like two or three bass boats and four guys in mismatched uniforms, with a couple of AK’s, captured two far-larger and better-armed American boats, both of which were bristling with mounted machine guns.

Here’s a fact: When you’re kneeling on the deck of your own boat, with your hands clasped behind your head, and some guy’s shouting at you in terrorist language, things didn’t go right.

And yet, that’s exactly what supposedly happened here. Ten American sailors, successors to Captain James Lawrence, are on their knees next to their unfired guns, in the face of a smaller and less well-armed opponent – with little American flags snapping in the breeze.

This is not the stuff of Commodore Perry and Admiral Farragut.

And you wonder whose call it was.

How far up the chain of command did they have to go to find the cowardly lion who ordered this genuflection before a bunch of savages? Did this get bounced all the way to the Pentagon, or the Situation Room?

Which secretary of what made the decision not to put a squadron of naval aviators above those two boats to keep the camel jockeys at bay?

It is shameful, a worldwide embarrassment for the nation and the Navy.
And it is topped off by an obsequious videotaped apology, and pictures of our sailors, captive in hostile hands, the female with a towel over her head.

The President can ignore this.

But we can’t.

We got pantsed. We got humiliated. We showed either weakness or incompetence. And unfortunately either one only invites aggression against us.

It is inconceivable that you could find 10 Americans willing to surrender themselves and their equipment without a fight. It is not plausible that any young man or woman entering into the naval service would willingly kneel on the deck of a combat-capable ship.

Somebody told them to give up.

And that somebody, and the philosophy he represents, will be the death of us.

- by Bob Lonsberry © 2016

Thank you Mr. Lonsberry for this marvelous piece, it is shared for no profit and it is my pleasure to let MY fans see YOUR words and opinion. I now have you linked in the sidebar of this blog, folks need to see your work.

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10 Responses to Don’t Give Up the Ship

  1. BobF says:

    Excellent article and I agree with him 100%. Heavy armed American Naval Vessels were basically captured by, like he said, bass boats. There’s a more here in this situation than meets the eye. Makes me wonder if this whole thing was planned from the beginning?

    BTW, here are the boats that were captured.

    https://youtu.be/hP7Um61zaFg

  2. dekare says:

    I thought the same damn thing. There is no way they were overcome…no way. I find the coincidences of breakdowns, and not fighting back way to convenient for someone. I even wondered if this was a planned “passoff” of something, as there is no other reason for this other than to embarrass America. Our men our the best trained, and do NOT surrender without a serious fight, and only after overwhelming forces have made anything but surrender the only choice. We outnumbered them, outgunned them, outclassed them, and yet, we surrendered. Someday, these men will talk. Why they have not yet now is beyond me. But the truth will come out eventually…it always does.

    One of these men will reveal to us that this was a secret mission in disguise and they had to play possum to pull it off. Or, it was a secret handoff of something important in trade. IT HAS TO BE SOMETHING OTHER THAN WHAT IT APPEARS!!!!

    Of that….I am sure.

    • TexasFred says:

      You know I am not much on *conspiracies* but I believe you are correct on this…

      • Capt Ron says:

        I fully agree. Too much is wrong with this picture.
        Hey, Ketchup boy, pass the salt for these wounds…

    • BobF says:

      Hopefully someday they will get the chance to talk, if they’re still here. Don’t forget, shortly after killing binLaden, a helicopter containing members of DEVGRU or what’s called SEAL Team 6, was shot down killing all on board. DEVGRU, along with Delta Force, is one of the US’s top counter terrorism units. You don’t send your top counter terrorism unit on a rescue mission.

  3. Wayne says:

    Unbelievable! I’ll bet ketchup boy knew about or even orchestrated the whole affair to make it look good for b.o.s’ “diplomacy at work”.

  4. Jim Bee says:

    Not only ketchup boy, but I’ll bet muslim ass knew within 5 minutes(or before) that it was going to happen!! I’m all for our servicemen and women but I wish THEY would
    give a hearty “FUCK YOU” and come out and tell exactly what really went on. Instead they will remain silent and could wind up in some kind of “accident” at sea and then it will remain a secret forever. I sure hope not but these fucking traitorous wont hesitate
    to get rid of any loose ends.

  5. Karl vonKnoblauch says:

    I have been listening to Bob Lonsberry on both radio stations for close to 30 years. He started on the Rochester Station and added the Syracuse station just a few years back.
    He is a straight shooter and very good reporter. He doesn’t miss anything!
    Everything he said above is on the mark and all of the comments from your readers are equally good.
    I can’t add to their comments.
    I’m glad you discovered him and added his blog to your list.
    Keep up your mission Fred.

  6. Petermc3 says:

    If this wasn’t contrived by the ValJar and her hand picked Non-Military Military Brass Elite then God didn’t make little green apples… The only question remaining is how to get 10 sailors on a broken down helicopter all at the same time.

  7. "Mr. E" says:

    Lurch is going to have more than Heinz ketchup stains over him. I smell 0bama Burgers on his breath too. The blood of these men and the stench of goat dung stinks from the pits of hell.

    By the way, I try hard not to buy Heinz products whenever I go to the grocery store. I buy Hunts to support the efforts of June Hunt. She helps troubled teenage girls who have gone astray by giving them a shelter to stay at, and finds them counseling for crisis pregnancy if the girl is pregnant. Heinz funds liberal causes, which is why I boycott stuffing Lurch’s pockets with cash. That pansy sock puppet draft dodger has aided and abetted the dumb emperor into destroying our international dignity. Lurch and Asshton Carter have buried America’s dignity under 0bama’s orders.

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