The U.S. Navy’s investigation of a January incident in which two U.S. riverine patrol boats were seized by Iranian naval vessels in the Persian Gulf concludes some of the captured American sailors, including the senior officer in charge, violated the military’s code of conduct, which requires detainees to conduct themselves in a manner that avoids discrediting themselves or the U.S. government. Basic military discipline broke down among the U.S. crew as the boats were being seized.
Singled out was the boat captain, the lone officer among the crew of 10 sailors, who agreed to apologize on camera in return for the release of his crew and their boats.
The report said the junior officer’s statement to his Iranian captors, which included him saying “we apologize for our mistake” and “that was our fault,” amounted to a formal apology that was inconsistent with the code of conduct.
In addition, other crew members volunteered information well beyond their name, rank and service number, including details about the speed, range and position of the U.S. patrol boats, and in some cases the passwords to phones and laptops.
“Those sailors clearly know our actions on that day in January, and this incident did not live up to our expectations of our Navy,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson said Thursday in releasing the findings.
The video of the helpless U.S. sailors in captivity was a propaganda coup for Iran, and an embarrassment for President Obama as he was touting his newly-negotiated Iran nuclear deal.
The Navy says since the incident, its Search, Evasion, Resistance and Escape training has been revamped so that all sailors get the highest level of instruction on how to act when under control of an adversary.
One crewmember told investigators he didn’t really think the code of conduct applied because the captors were Iranian and the U.S. is not at war with Iran.
The other shocking finding of the report was the breakdown of basic military discipline, including the principle that orders are to be followed.
When the boat captain ordered his coxswain to speed up to drive through the Iranian vessels, the coxswain refused the order. Instead of insisting his orders be carried out, the boat captain meekly backed down.
“When the coxswain refused to obey his lawful order the Boat Captain acquiesced to the coxswain’s refusal. Instead of taking action to defend his unit and his sovereign immune vessel the Boat Captain knowingly surrendered both boats to the Iranian vessels,” the report found.
It condemned the defiance and the acquiescence in stark terms. “The Coxswain’s disobeying of his Boat Captain’s order while confronting a force that had demonstrated hostile intent and effectively seizing control of the vessel strikes at the heart of our Navy’s culture. In the face of adversity, the RCB 802 Coxswain seized control of RCB 802 from his superior commissioner officer. The authority to control a vessel can never be in dispute nor can it be challenged.”
But investigators offered a shocking explanation for the failure of leadership by the young officer, who the report said was “placed in a difficult position” and was not given “basic mentorship” by his superiors.
“Left his own devices he emulated poor leadership traits he witnessed first-hand in his chain of command,” the report concluded.
Both the commanding officer and the executive officer of the riverine unit have been fired, but no one involved is facing a court-martial. They will receive non-judicial punishment.
