Iranian Boats Should Have Been Destroyed

When Iranian boats approached our ships with threats that “the ships would explode”, such imminent danger to our warships and service members was all our naval commanders needed to send the likely members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to “paradise”.

Dangerous and unpredictable countries like Iran only understand and respect strength. Indecision and a hesitancy to react could very easily be interpreted as weakness. Perceived weakness will only increase the confrontations, not reduce them.

While the warship commanders may possess information we don’t have, it still seems like the appropriate response would have been similar to the photo above.

The Reuters article below talks about the incident:

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Iranians threatened U.S. ships in Hormuz: Pentagon
Mon Jan 7, 2008 6:54pm EST
By Andrew Gray

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iranian boats aggressively approached three U.S. Naval ships in the Strait of Hormuz, a main shipping route for Gulf oil, at the weekend and threatened that the ships would explode, U.S. officials said on Monday.

Iran dismissed U.S. concerns about the incident, saying it was a routine contact. But the Pentagon termed the Iranian actions "careless, reckless and potentially hostile" and said Tehran should provide an explanation.

"This is a very volatile area and the risk of an incident escalating is real," U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said. "It is a reminder that there is a very unpredictable government in Tehran."

Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff, the commander of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, which is based in the Gulf, said five Iranian fast boats moved aggressively toward the U.S. ships in international waters and their actions were "unduly provocative."

"The ships received a radio call that was threatening in nature, to the effect that they were closing on our ships and ... the U.S. ships would explode," Cosgriff told reporters at the Pentagon via videolink from his Bahrain headquarters.

The incident was the latest sign of tension between Washington and Tehran, at odds over a range of issues from Iran's nuclear program to U.S. allegations of Iranian support for terrorism and interference in Iraq.

U.S. President George W. Bush is due to travel to the Middle East this week on a trip he has said is partly aimed at countering Iranian influence.

Cosgriff said the U.S. Navy believed the Iranian boats belonged to the country's Revolutionary Guard and they were sometimes less than 500 yards (meters) from the U.S. ships.

In October, the United States designated the Revolutionary Guard Corps a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction and its elite Qods force a supporter of terrorism.

OIL PRICES ROSE

Oil prices briefly rose on the news about the confrontation as dealers weighed the threat to shipments along the key shipping route. Crude futures jumped 49 cents to $98.40 a barrel before slipping back.

In Tehran, the Iranian Foreign Ministry described the encounter as "ordinary" and said it had been resolved.

"This is an ordinary issue that happens for the two sides every once in a while and, after the identification of the two sides, the issue is resolved," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told Iran's official IRNA news agency.

An "informed source" from the naval force of Iran's Revolutionary Guards was quoted by Iranian state television as saying: "There were no out of the ordinary contacts between the Guards' naval force and American ships."

The source said three U.S. naval ships were asked by Guards' vessels "as usual" to identify themselves "which they did and they continued their path.

Pentagon officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said after the Iranian threats a U.S. captain was in the process of ordering sailors to open fire when the Iranian boats moved away.

According to the officials, the radio transmission from one of the Iranian ships said: "I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes."

Cosgriff said two Iranian boats also dropped floating white boxes into the water. He offered no explanation for that move but said the U.S. ships passed the boxes safely.

Cosgriff said the U.S. Navy was very mindful of the damage small craft could do to large ships. Al Qaeda militants killed 17 U.S. sailors when they rammed an explosives-laden boat into the side of the USS Cole, a destroyer, in Aden in 2000.

The incident took place about 0400 GMT Sunday, or late Saturday night in Washington, the officials said. Cosgriff said it was daylight with "decent visibility." The three U.S. ships were the USS Port Royal, USS Hopper and the USS Ingraham.

Last March, Iran seized 15 British sailors and marines in the Gulf and accused them of trespassing into Iranian waters. London maintained they were in Iraqi waters but the Britons were held for almost two weeks.

(Writing by Andrew Gray; Editing by David Storey)

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SFC Chuck Grist
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com

Read "The Advisor" from Iraq (Part 2)

Apparently there is some difficulty with the link in my previous post. Try this one and, hopefully, it will lead you to a site where you have access to the advisor as well as other useful information:

http://www.mnstci.iraq.centcom.mil/

Let me know if you have problems.

SFC Chuck Grist
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com

The "America Goes Home" Scenario

For argument’s sake, let’s assume the United States and its Coalition partners complied with the wishes of the “cut and run” crowd and pulled out of Iraq tomorrow. I submit the following fictional article as one of the scenarios that might occur:

"With the Iraqi Army and police still not fully prepared to protect their country, the fundamentalist Shiite militias rapidly took control of the secular central government. This decisive move occurred with the consent of the country’s most powerful Shiite religious figure, Ayatollah Sistani, the spiritual leader of over 60% of Iraq’s citizens.

Other than Sistani, the new face of power became Muqtada al Sadr, leader of the Mahdi Army. This private militia would come to be known as the “Hezbollah of Iraq”. Any remaining democratic institutions in the Iraqi government were quickly subdued and crushed. The Iraqi version of the Taliban completed its takeover of Iraq in only weeks.

With their Shiite supporters already embedded within the militias, the mullahs in Iran began to inject their influence into every segment of Iraqi society. Under al Sadr’s leadership, the militias commenced the ethnic cleansing of the Sunni minority and the resulting slaughter was the most brutal in Arab history.

Without American troops to distract them, the Sunni insurgents and the remaining Baath Party loyalists directed all of their hatred at the Shiites. The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers turned red with blood.

The Shiite radicals were firmly in charge of Iraq, but the rest of the Arab world is mostly Sunni. These nations began to oppose the new Iraqi dictatorship and this opposition began as an effort to train and supply the Sunni insurgency. Ultimately, the brutality of the Shiites became unbearable and the armies of these countries marched into western Iraq to protect their Sunni brothers.

With virtually all Arab nations engaged in the fighting to some degree, the flow of oil from the Middle East was interrupted. Governments in Europe, Asia and the Americas had been dependent on that oil, so their economies were plunged into economic depression.

The Middle East became engulfed in a cataclysmic war of Biblical proportions. Since America’s withdrawal from the Iraq war gave a major victory to the Islamic fundamentalists, the political influence of the United States was diminished throughout the world. The Islamic terrorists began to direct their efforts at the remaining American soldiers in Afghanistan, Kuwait and elsewhere in the Middle East. They also began to select the next targets inside the United States.

The “cut and run” politicians and pundits succeeded in bringing American forces home from Iraq, but now they realized that the war didn’t really end.

It had only just begun."

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Scary stuff, isn’t it?

Sometimes the easy way is not the right way; sometimes the more difficult path is the one that must be followed.

SFC Chuck Grist
www.AmericanRanger.blogspot.com

(Photo above from Associated Press)

Mortars Along the Tigris

I am still involved in training activities at Fort Bragg and I will soon tell you about some of the extraordinary individuals I have met. Until I can do so, I’ll reflect once more on my tour in Iraq in 2004. The above photo shows the Tigris River and downtown Baghdad.

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I was fortunate to lead the men of the “C.O.B.R.A. Team” (Staff Sergeant Aaron Self, Sergeant Chad Higginbotham and Sergeant John “Doc” Actis, II). Our job as a protective service detail, or personal security detachment, was to protect the life of Brigadier General Charles “Sandy” Davidson, the commander of the 350th Civil Affairs Command. Davidson is now a major general assigned to Centcom. Our team’s website is http://www.thecobrateam.com/.

When we lived in Baghdad’s Green Zone, our little house was directly on the Tigris River across from the Sheraton Hotel, a frequent target of insurgent rockets or mortars. We called our residence the “cobra pit”.

The following excerpt from my in-progress book tells about an incident during which we were the target of other incoming rounds:

“I was sitting alone in the cobra pit on the evening of August 7th when I heard two loud explosions. Running outside to see what was happening, I stepped into the courtyard just as a mortar or small rocket flew directly over my head and exploded about a hundred meters away. I muttered an expletive to myself, but another round flew into the Green Zone and landed even closer.

Looking for some reasonable cover, I ran to the concrete stairway leading up to the street. There was a small space next to the wall of the cobra pit and it provided good protection for the moment. Another round landed on the other side of the wall and the explosion sent pieces of steel shrapnel flying over my head. I could hear chunks of metal landing on the roof of our house. It was the closest these weapons had ever come to me.

After seven or eight rounds, it appeared the attack was over. I walked up to the street and headed toward the general’s house where I knew Higginbotham was guarding the boss. Several Iraqi civilians came outside and pointed to the end of the street where one of the rounds might have landed on a house. We all began to walk in that direction to make sure there were no casualties.

As we passed the house next to the cobra pit, another round came over our heads and exploded nearby. I told the Iraqis to go back and take cover and they started running to their house. Other rounds continued to impact near us and the last Iraqi in the group acted like he didn’t know where to go. I directed him to our stairwell and he joined me in the small area next to the stairs. The attack ended shortly thereafter.

Everyone was fine at the general’s house and Higginbotham made sure General Davidson was under sufficient cover. Fortunately, there were no casualties in our compound.”

SFC Chuck Grist
http://www.americanranger.blogspot.com/

A Sergeant's Last Tour

“The Sergeant is the Army.”
General Dwight Eisenhower, WW II

My orders have been issued calling me to active duty as of February 1, 2007 as an infantryman. I am an observer/controller trainer who will participate in the training and mobilization of infantry units headed to war. My civilian career as a police officer is on hold once again, but I believe I am needed more as a soldier for now. This is my third mobilization since 9/11.

My Army Reserve unit is aware of my desire to return to Iraq. My second choice would be Afghanistan. Should our unit be tasked with missions in those theaters, my name is on a list of volunteers.

Yeah, I am well aware of my age. That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t serve in a war zone as long as I am in the active reserve and physically able to do the job. I have never believed that service in war should be restricted to the young; the kids need an old hand every now and then. Still, this will be my last active duty tour.

I am beginning my final two years of military service. I will turn 60 in February of 2009 and that is my mandatory retirement date. I will surely be one of the few remaining Vietnam veterans serving in the Army by then.

For those military souls who wonder why a 57 (almost 58) year old soldier is still only an E-7 or sergeant first class, I would simply say “Don’t worry about it.” I have been in and out of the military several times since I returned from Vietnam as a young first lieutenant. It was that first break in service of nine years that cost me the commission. However, I have enjoyed my time as a sergeant and I wouldn’t trade my experiences for anything.

I believe I have one of the three most important ranks in the Army. Over many years I have learned that battles cannot be fought or won without sergeants, staff sergeants or sergeants first class. Non-commissioned officers, or NCOs, are indeed the backbone of the Army.

As a very young lieutenant, I served in the jungle with sergeants who taught me how to read trails, smell the enemy and think like a guerrilla. As a sergeant, I have shared my warrior skills with younger soldiers in various training schools and also in the deserts of Iraq. I spoke today with an Army major who is retiring. I was one of his trainers when he was in Officer Candidate School preparing to be a lieutenant. He may be retiring, but I am still around.

It won’t be too much longer before I hang up the uniform for the last time. Until then I hope the big Ranger in the sky will permit me to fill many days of useful service to my country.

After all, if I can teach just one soldier something that might keep him alive, then the old sergeant still has a purpose.

“Rangers Lead the Way”

SFC Chuck Grist

Colonel Logan Barbee: Leading the Way in Iraq

One of the most professional soldiers I worked with in Iraq during my tour in 2004 was Colonel Logan Barbee who was a professor of agriculture at the University of Florida. As an activated reservist with the 350th Civil Affairs Command, he went to Iraq as the Senior Advisor to the Ministry of Agriculture and the Chief Intelligence Officer for the 350th. He is also an Army Ranger.

Since that tumultuous year at war, Barbee has retired with 28 years of active and reserve time in the Army, retired from the university after 25 years and volunteered to return to Iraq as a civilian.

I received an email from him and learned that he is once again in Iraq, this time as a Senior Advisor for the State Department. He is still working hard to help the Iraqis re-build their country so they can move on to a better life. He knows, as I do, that the vast majority of Iraqis are kind and gentle and they simply want to live a normal life with their families, make a decent living and enjoy life in peace.

According to Barbee: “Our public doesn’t realize is that this is an agricultural country to the Iraqi people, not an oil country. Oil is a recent commodity and it has been a benefit for the Iraqi government, not the people. Oil only provides jobs for 3% of Iraqis. Agriculture in Iraq was once their major export. They exported wheat, barley, rice, vegetables and dates and, with their large fertilizer plant in operation, they exported fertilizer to the surrounding Arab countries. Saddam changed all that and created a welfare state by importing agricultural commodities and giving everyone a food basket. It killed the markets and farming. Iraq is the Fertile Crescent with two great rivers flowing through its center. Canal systems are everywhere and over 80% of Iraqi workers have, in some way, worked in the agricultural operations at one time or another and it is like rural America in the 1930s.”

He went on to say: “Sometimes we miss the “people’s needs”. We build schools and roads, which are important, but food and jobs come first. The heart is in the stomach when it comes to feeding the family.”

With all the whiners and crybabies among the “celebrities” and the Hollywood crowd, it is refreshing to know men like Logan Barbee who are willing to step forward to make the kind of differences in this world that last for generations.

After all, he is a Ranger and “Rangers Lead the Way”.

SFC Chuck Grist

A Tyrant's End

The hanging of Saddam Hussein at the end of 2006 brings a long and horrendous era to a close. While there are those who may oppose capital punishment for moral reasons, it is a good thing that Hussein has joined his sons on the rock pile of Hell. Were he still alive, he would always be a rallying point for a few diehard Baathists who longed for a return to the days of power.

Now the Sunnis must re-evaluate their priorities. Their champion is gone and there will be no day in the future when he will either escape from jail or be pardoned by some future Iraqi administration.

We must hope that the “New Way Forward” being prepared by President Bush will push us quickly to the point where the Iraqis can take care of their own country with minimal outside assistance.

That is what we want, but that is also what the Iraqis want as well.

Happy New Year to everyone, but especially to those who are serving in harm’s way in the war on terror and to the families who are waiting for their safe return.

SFC Chuck Grist

October, 2004: Farewell to Baghdad

My 2004 tour finally came to an end. This op-ed piece was in the Orlando Sentinel on October 5, 2004.



FAREWELL TO BAGHDAD
Baghdad – October, 2004

Standing on the roof of our headquarters building on the Tigris River in Baghdad, I looked across the river at the Sheraton Hotel and thought about how many times it had been the target of rockets. I saw the blue dome of the nearby mosque and heard the evening call to prayer. Hearing this several times a day became a memorable experience in this exotic, though dangerous, part of the world. With my tour in Iraq about to end, I was smoking a farewell cigar. It was time to go home.

I had taken my last look at Assassin’s Gate, Iraq’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the gigantic monument of Swords and the presidential palace that is now the U.S. Embassy. I ate one more at the Chinese restaurant and the Green Zone Café. I experienced for the last time the intrigue of the al-Rasheed Hotel, where the reporters, the embassy staffers, the mercenaries and the spies hang out. I said my goodbyes to my Iraqi friends.

There would be one last convoy as we drove to the Baghdad airport. It would be a strange feeling to know that, once the wheels of the aircraft lifted off the ground, many of us would probably never again face the prospect of death by rockets, mortars, improvised explosive devices, ambushes or assassination. A few of us will surely return, but the job goes on for the thousands who remain behind.

Our four-man Protective Service Detail, the COBRA Team, was formed for one purpose. That mission was to ensure the safety of Gen. Charles Davidson, commander of the 350th Civil Affairs Command, during his tour of duty. To accomplish this, our movements in the air and on the ground had to be planned well enough that the enemy could not predict where we would be and would never see us as a “soft” target. True success would mean that we were never the victims of an IED, an ambush or an assassination attempt. The possibility of “bad luck” was always there, but it always is.

On Sept. 28, Davidson departed Iraq after completing his own important job. When he left, our primary mission had been successful and was at an end. My own last mission would be to get the members of my team out of Iraq and safely home.

During our missions in Iraq, we have been shot at but never wounded. We have been on the receiving end of rockets and mortars, but the shrapnel did not hit us. We have never been the victims of an improvised explosive device, a vehicle bomb or an ambush, but we have missed them all by only minutes. We have seen mysterious men in masks with AK-47s lurking in alleys along our routes but, with the general in our convoy, our job was to avoid contact. We are all combat veterans of other wars and did not need to “face the elephant” again, but we were ready, willing and able to do so.

For their overwhelming support, our families, friends, churches, employers and average Americans will have our gratitude forever. They kept our spirits up with letters, cards, e-mails and generous packages. Saying “thank you” could never be enough.

We are looking forward to reuniting with our families and resuming our civilian careers. Staff Sgt. Aaron Self will return to Texas to complete the police academy. He had only two weeks to go when he was activated. Sgt. Chad Higginbotham will return to his family and his law enforcement career in Mississippi. Newly promoted Sgt. John “Doc” Actis II, another Mississippi cop, has joined the ranks of the private security contractors making the big bucks. After taking a short break, he will return to Iraq as one of the “new” mercenary soldiers of his generation.

As for me, with Vietnam and Iraq on opposite ends of my career, it is time to return to the States and to my job as a police officer with the Altamonte Springs Police Department. At least the bad guys back there don’t use rockets and mortars.

To Debbie, my dear wife of 30 years who is the girl I left behind, I must simply say how blessed I will be to walk with you through every day of the rest of our lives.

SFC Chuck Grist
Baghdad, Iraq