A U.S. Navy investigation is sharply critical of the planning, execution and subsequent Iranian reaction to a January incident in which Iran seized two U.S. Navy riverine patrol boats in the Persian Gulf, and detained and humiliated 10 U.S. sailors.
A report released this morning says the ill-fated mission was launched five hours late, without positive satellite communications, and with the crew lacking navigational awareness and appreciation of the threat environment.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson announced that nine sailors, ranking from captain to an enlisted petty officer, will face what military calls “nonjudicial punishment.”
The investigation found that the commander and crew of the two boats had no idea where they were, or that they had passed through the territorial waters of Saudi Arabia and entered the territorial waters of Iran, when one of the boats broke down.
The U.S. Navy investigation also criticized Iran for its response to the incident, saying the American boats should have been granted the right of innocent passage, and that its actions in seizing the vessels, disarming and blindfolding the crew, and then interrogating and videotaping the sailors and forcing them to apologize before releasing them violated international laws.
“These two boats and their crew members had every right to be where they were on that day,” Richardson said at a briefing at the Pentagon. “The investigation concluded that Iran violated international law by impeding the boat’s innocent passage transit, and it violated sovereign immunity by boarding, searching and seizing the boats, and by photographing and videotaping the crew.”
The report said Iran had the right to order the U.S. boats out of its waters, but not to seize and show hostile intent.
But the report places most of the blame on the American sailors, and their commanders up the chain of command.
It cites a series of mistakes including inadequate manning, insufficient training, lack of communication, and poor leadership and judgment, and faults the boat captain for surrendering, and “failing to take appropriate action” to defend the U.S. boats.
It includes a finding that crew members refused directed orders, and that the boat captain “acquiesced.”
“The coxswain disobeyed a lawful order of a superior commissioned officer when he refused to obey the boat captain’s order to accelerate through the Iranian vessels,” the report says.
“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.”
Said Richardson: “This incident did not live up to our expectations of our Navy, but we are a Navy that learns in order to maintain the bonds of trust and confidence amongst ourselves and with the American people.”
