Navy finds crews detained by Iran were ‘derelict’ in duties
Poor decisions, bad training, little oversight blamed
The crews of two U.S. Navy boats detained briefly by Iran in January were “derelict” in their duties during a mistake-prone mission in the Persian Gulf, a Navy investigation released Thursday concluded.
The investigation found that the crews of the riverine boats took an unauthorized shortcut through Iranian territorial waters because they were in a hurry and were not prepared to resist or evade the Iranian naval ships that surrounded them off the coast of Iran’s Farsi Island on Jan. 12.
The mission to move the boats from Kuwait to Bahrain was plagued by poor decisions, bad training and little oversight, the report concluded.
“The RCB boat captains and crews were derelict in performing their duties to expected norms and standards,” the report said, referring to riverine command boats.
The boats and 10 crew members were captured without any shots fired, creating an embarrassing international incident for the Obama administration as it defended a controversial nuclear agreement with Iran.
Iran used the incident for propaganda purposes, releasing a video of the Americans, including one in which the skipper of the ships seemed to apologize for straying into Iranian waters.
“Our actions on that day in January did not live up to our expectations of our Navy,” Adm. John Richardson, the chief of naval operations, said at a Pentagon briefing that announced the results of the investigation.
Three officers have been fired from their jobs in connection with the incident, and six service members will probably face disciplinary action, the Navy said.
The crews had only 24 hours’ notice that they were going to make the journey and had to stay up all night to ready the boats, according to the report, which provided a detailed account of the incident. They got off late and decided to save time by taking a more direct route that would take them through Saudi and Iranian waters.