thedrifter
04-06-07, 03:24 PM
U.S. revisits procedures after ordeal
By Andrew Scutro - Staff writerhostage
Posted : Friday Apr 6, 2007 15:44:46 EDT
Maritime security operations undertaken by U.S. naval forces will get a top-down review following Iran’s highly-publicized capture and 13-day detention of 15 British sailors and marines, according to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
“Naturally, this kind of an event is of concern, and we have asked ... [Joint Chiefs Chairman Marine Gen. Peter Pace], through the commander of the Central Command and others, to examine our procedures and make sure that, first of all, that we’re playing well within the baselines, just like the British were, and that our sailors are properly protected against any similar kind of activity,” Gates said April 5 at the Pentagon.
Questions remain about the circumstances of the March 23 capture in the northern Persian Gulf — confined, shallow waters off the coasts of Iraq and Iran patrolled around the clock by U.S., British and Australian naval forces. British military officials promise their own full review of the ordeal. But in the meantime, the head of the Royal Navy praised the actions of the British sailors soon after their return.
“I think our people have reacted extremely well in some very difficult circumstances,” First Sea Lord Adm. Sir Jonathon Band told the British press.
American sailors share the same risks in northern Persian Gulf. In an interview with CNN on April 5, Adm. Mike Mullen, chief of naval operations, said in plain terms that he expects U.S. naval personnel to prevent such circumstances.
“My expectation is that American sailors are never seized in a situation like that,” he said. “Individuals and units are guided by the right of self-defense; they don’t have to ask permission to take action to protect themselves. And they go into operations like this, and missions like this, with that understanding.”
In the event that sailors are captured, he added, it’s expected that sailors follow the six-point Code of Conduct that U.S. service members learn in boot camp. They are to provide their identity and little else, Mullen said, remaining “very limited in terms of any kind of response” to questions.
The captured British sailors and marines were quite outspoken, some thanking their captors for their “forgiveness” and others confessing they’d crossed into Iranian waters despite the insistence by their own government and the U.S. that they had not.
‘Complete reversal of your life’
The reality of being captured does not always square with expectations ashore, according to one former sailor who’s been there.
Ralph McClintock was a cryptographic technician third class aboard the reconnaissance ship Pueblo when the ship and its crew were attacked and captured by North Korean forces Jan. 23, 1968. For 11 months, crew members were beaten, tortured and forced to make phony confessions before being released.
Calling capture by hostile forces a “complete reversal of your life,” McClintock said training will never match the experience, though the code of conduct does serve as a “beacon” while held prisoner.
“You can try to translate the code of conduct to what’s happening to you. Some people can do it. Some people can’t,” he said. “It’s a very valuable thing because you have to have something to shoot for. You have to have something to believe in.”
Unlike a shot-down pilot who is captured alone, the Pueblo crew was captured together, with several wounded and one killed in the preceding attack. The British sailors and marines were also captured as a group. McClintock does not blame them for making apologetic statements or appearing to be in good spirits.
“They were acting the way they had to at the moment,” he said. “You’ll do what you have to do to survive.”
McClintock and his shipmates were used for propaganda photos but managed to sabotage them by flipping the bird, a gesture explained to their captors as Hawaiian good luck sign. When a photo of them making the gesture showed up in Time magazine, and their act was explained in a caption as obscene, the Pueblo crew was beaten without mercy.
“That’s when the world ended,” he said. “It was hell week.”
For a sailor who does get captured, McClintock has some clear advice:
* “Remember the code of conduct and try to live up to it as best you can.”
* “Survival of you and your shipmates is paramount.”
* If not captured as an existing unit, “immediately form a command structure and keep that intact.”
* Finally, when being interrogated, figure out what it is the captors want and play to it, but compromise the confessions.
“You can try to manipulate the people who are trying to manipulate you into not being able to get out of you what you know they want to get out of you,” he said.
Resolving to resist
Former Navy lieutenant and fellow hostage Shane Osborn echoes McClintock’s strategy.
Osborn and his 24-sailor crew were held captive by Chinese authorities for 11 days in 2001 after their spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter aircraft near that country’s coast. They were forced to make an emergency landing on Chinese soil and endured threats of endless imprisonment and demands for public apologies.
Osborn, now Nebraska’s state treasurer, was the airplane commander. He said his crew quickly vowed to resist to the best of their ability, for as long as humanly possible.
“The blood was not going thin on my watch,” he told Navy Times on April 5, the same day the Brits were released. “We were nowhere near our breaking point. We still had a lot of fight left in us.”
On the 10th day of captivity, the Chinese even told Osborn he and his crew could go home that day if they confessed to violating Chinese airspace, a fact Osborn and the U.S. denied. He gathered his crew together and shared the Chinese offer.
“We were all scared, unsure how long we’d be there,” he said. “But I told them that there have been a lot of people who have been through a hell of a lot worse than we had been. I said I’d be old and gray before that [apology] happened. It was clear from the crew’s faces that that was not a deal we were going to make.
“You don’t want to be used for propaganda, if you can help it,” he said. “You certainly don’t want to take responsibility for something you are not responsible for.”
Osborn said that as he watched the recent news unfold, he was reminded of “how proud as hell I was of our crew. We left with honor.”
As the hostage drama winds down, news reports from April 6 said British forces had suspended boarding operations in the gulf while procedures are reviewed.
Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Brown, a spokesman at U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain, said the Royal Navy frigate Cornwall that had been in the gulf is now in port.
“They just don’t have a ship there right now,” he said.
He confirmed that the maritime security operation underway in the area — including regular vessel boardings by U.S. forces — continue unchanged.
“We’re always reviewing our procedures and trying to improve, but we’re still conducting boardings and will continue to do that,” he said. “The mission up there is too important for the coalition not to continue.”
Ellie
By Andrew Scutro - Staff writerhostage
Posted : Friday Apr 6, 2007 15:44:46 EDT
Maritime security operations undertaken by U.S. naval forces will get a top-down review following Iran’s highly-publicized capture and 13-day detention of 15 British sailors and marines, according to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
“Naturally, this kind of an event is of concern, and we have asked ... [Joint Chiefs Chairman Marine Gen. Peter Pace], through the commander of the Central Command and others, to examine our procedures and make sure that, first of all, that we’re playing well within the baselines, just like the British were, and that our sailors are properly protected against any similar kind of activity,” Gates said April 5 at the Pentagon.
Questions remain about the circumstances of the March 23 capture in the northern Persian Gulf — confined, shallow waters off the coasts of Iraq and Iran patrolled around the clock by U.S., British and Australian naval forces. British military officials promise their own full review of the ordeal. But in the meantime, the head of the Royal Navy praised the actions of the British sailors soon after their return.
“I think our people have reacted extremely well in some very difficult circumstances,” First Sea Lord Adm. Sir Jonathon Band told the British press.
American sailors share the same risks in northern Persian Gulf. In an interview with CNN on April 5, Adm. Mike Mullen, chief of naval operations, said in plain terms that he expects U.S. naval personnel to prevent such circumstances.
“My expectation is that American sailors are never seized in a situation like that,” he said. “Individuals and units are guided by the right of self-defense; they don’t have to ask permission to take action to protect themselves. And they go into operations like this, and missions like this, with that understanding.”
In the event that sailors are captured, he added, it’s expected that sailors follow the six-point Code of Conduct that U.S. service members learn in boot camp. They are to provide their identity and little else, Mullen said, remaining “very limited in terms of any kind of response” to questions.
The captured British sailors and marines were quite outspoken, some thanking their captors for their “forgiveness” and others confessing they’d crossed into Iranian waters despite the insistence by their own government and the U.S. that they had not.
‘Complete reversal of your life’
The reality of being captured does not always square with expectations ashore, according to one former sailor who’s been there.
Ralph McClintock was a cryptographic technician third class aboard the reconnaissance ship Pueblo when the ship and its crew were attacked and captured by North Korean forces Jan. 23, 1968. For 11 months, crew members were beaten, tortured and forced to make phony confessions before being released.
Calling capture by hostile forces a “complete reversal of your life,” McClintock said training will never match the experience, though the code of conduct does serve as a “beacon” while held prisoner.
“You can try to translate the code of conduct to what’s happening to you. Some people can do it. Some people can’t,” he said. “It’s a very valuable thing because you have to have something to shoot for. You have to have something to believe in.”
Unlike a shot-down pilot who is captured alone, the Pueblo crew was captured together, with several wounded and one killed in the preceding attack. The British sailors and marines were also captured as a group. McClintock does not blame them for making apologetic statements or appearing to be in good spirits.
“They were acting the way they had to at the moment,” he said. “You’ll do what you have to do to survive.”
McClintock and his shipmates were used for propaganda photos but managed to sabotage them by flipping the bird, a gesture explained to their captors as Hawaiian good luck sign. When a photo of them making the gesture showed up in Time magazine, and their act was explained in a caption as obscene, the Pueblo crew was beaten without mercy.
“That’s when the world ended,” he said. “It was hell week.”
For a sailor who does get captured, McClintock has some clear advice:
* “Remember the code of conduct and try to live up to it as best you can.”
* “Survival of you and your shipmates is paramount.”
* If not captured as an existing unit, “immediately form a command structure and keep that intact.”
* Finally, when being interrogated, figure out what it is the captors want and play to it, but compromise the confessions.
“You can try to manipulate the people who are trying to manipulate you into not being able to get out of you what you know they want to get out of you,” he said.
Resolving to resist
Former Navy lieutenant and fellow hostage Shane Osborn echoes McClintock’s strategy.
Osborn and his 24-sailor crew were held captive by Chinese authorities for 11 days in 2001 after their spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter aircraft near that country’s coast. They were forced to make an emergency landing on Chinese soil and endured threats of endless imprisonment and demands for public apologies.
Osborn, now Nebraska’s state treasurer, was the airplane commander. He said his crew quickly vowed to resist to the best of their ability, for as long as humanly possible.
“The blood was not going thin on my watch,” he told Navy Times on April 5, the same day the Brits were released. “We were nowhere near our breaking point. We still had a lot of fight left in us.”
On the 10th day of captivity, the Chinese even told Osborn he and his crew could go home that day if they confessed to violating Chinese airspace, a fact Osborn and the U.S. denied. He gathered his crew together and shared the Chinese offer.
“We were all scared, unsure how long we’d be there,” he said. “But I told them that there have been a lot of people who have been through a hell of a lot worse than we had been. I said I’d be old and gray before that [apology] happened. It was clear from the crew’s faces that that was not a deal we were going to make.
“You don’t want to be used for propaganda, if you can help it,” he said. “You certainly don’t want to take responsibility for something you are not responsible for.”
Osborn said that as he watched the recent news unfold, he was reminded of “how proud as hell I was of our crew. We left with honor.”
As the hostage drama winds down, news reports from April 6 said British forces had suspended boarding operations in the gulf while procedures are reviewed.
Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Brown, a spokesman at U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain, said the Royal Navy frigate Cornwall that had been in the gulf is now in port.
“They just don’t have a ship there right now,” he said.
He confirmed that the maritime security operation underway in the area — including regular vessel boardings by U.S. forces — continue unchanged.
“We’re always reviewing our procedures and trying to improve, but we’re still conducting boardings and will continue to do that,” he said. “The mission up there is too important for the coalition not to continue.”
Ellie