The "Good Old Days"

09:35 Wednesday, 11 March 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 58.64°F Pressure: 1008hPa Humidity: 91% Wind: 12.46mph
Words: 729

I get an email from the U.S. Naval Institute every other day or so. This morning's had a link to an article from May 1988 about the tanker war in the Persian Gulf. Not included in this piece is an incident I was involved in aboard USS STEPHEN W. GROVES (FFG-29).

We were frequently (nearly always) assigned to operate in the Straits of Hormuz Western Patrol Area (SOHWPA), aka "The Junkyard," because there were so many damaged and abandoned tankers anchored in the area. After STARK was hit, our deployment was extended to backfill STARK, though we didn't have LINK-11, which is why STARK typically patrolled in the northern gulf operating area. She linked with the AWACS that was usually airborne out of Saudi Arabia.

One afternoon, a French flagged tanker was beginning to transit the straits outbound to the Gulf of Oman, and an Iranian Hengham-class LST was operating nearby. It began to approach the French vessel and our XO, my friend Rick Hoffman, was on the bridge observing the LST. He called the captain and reported that he observed the crew of the LST manning their guns. I believe they had some 37mm anti-aircraft mounts, but I'd have to check that.

We were steaming in Condition III, wartime steaming, which meant that all weapons stations were manned and we could fight the ship. At that time, I believe we also maintained one repair locker fully manned, and the material condition of the ship was set a Modified Zebra (maximum watertight integrity, chemical, biological and radiological defense). Basically that meant ventilation was largely running normally because it's the Persian Gulf, and we had some scuttles open so people could move about the ship more readily.

The captain came to Combat, I was on watch as the Tactical Action Officer. We maneuvered to place ourselves between the tanker and the LST. We had no authorization to "protect" or "defend" a foreign flagged vessel, but the skipper, Billy Cornett, was a pretty aggressive guy. The Iranians were training their mounts in azimuth (horizontally), and pausing when they bore on us. The XO also noted that the sailors manning the mounts were in flash gear and helmets.

At this point the captain is calling the shots in Combat, and he orders a fire control track on the LST. This is largely undetectable by the target as it's merely a "track while scan" function of the surface fire control radar, part of the Mark 92 fire control system. We weren't "illuminating" them with a dedicated fire control radar. We brought our 75mm gun to Ready Alert Air and selected VT Frag as the ammunition, proximity fused fragmentation rounds. They would kill anyone on deck, like those guys in the open mounts. That causes the gun barrel to elevate from the horizontal stow position, but otherwise doesn't move the mount. Had we assigned the gun to the track it would have trained to the bearing of the LST, which might have been interpreted by the Iranians as "hostile intent." But if they were paying attention, they would have seen the barrel elevate and known that it was at some heightened state of readiness.

We had a somewhat ambiguous ROE situation with regard to hostile intent on the part of the Iranians, but we were just seconds away from putting rounds on target if the ambiguity resolved itself.

The LST called us on VHF bridge-to-bridge and asked us if we were escorting the French flagged vessel. We had a bridge-to-bridge radio in Combat and the captain replied that we were just conducting normal operations in international waters, which was a true statement.

This situation remained for several minutes as I recall, eventually resolving as the LST turned away and began steaming away from the tanker. We remained in proximity for some time after that.

Because this was a significant event, we had to send an urgent OPREP-3 Navy Blue to COMIDEASTFOR, which outlined the sequence of events and our actions.

We later received an informal reprimand from COMIDEASTFOR for not taking the LST under fire. The captain was somewhat pissed, as he thought the mission was to maintain peace in the operating area.

We also received a signal from the French tanker, thanking us for our service.

Just another day in the Persian Gulf.

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Further to the Foregoing

09:10 Wednesday, 11 March 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 57.56°F Pressure: 1009hPa Humidity: 90% Wind: 10.02mph
Words: 100

If you're the kind of person who cares about the rule of law, and the role of international law, here's a nuanced piece (which is a nice way of saying there are things in here that I agree with, and things that I don't agree with) addressing Trump's Iran war and the role of international law.

It's long, has a lot of links, refers to many people you and I have never heard of before, but generally seems well informed, reasonable, troubling and encouraging.

It'll also help you fall asleep.

But the bottom line is International law is not "fake."

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