Mitt Romney’s debate performance last night should disqualify him from the Presidency. Certainly it demonstrated that he does not take seriously, and has not attempted to prepare himself for, the role of Commander-in-Chief.
Romney bemoaned the fact that the U.S. Navy has fewer ships than it used to – at any time since 1917, he claimed. He also described Syria as Iran’s “path to the sea.” Romney’s interest in the Navy and its capabilities was and is for political purposes only. If he actually had any interest in the Navy, he would know that its last major surface engagement was fought against – the Iranian Navy.
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On 14 April 1988, the guided missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts struck a mine in the Persian Gulf and was heavily damaged. Navy divers recovered several mines from the area and determined that their markings matched those of mines seized from an Iranian minelayer, the Iran Ajr, several months before. Having concluded that Iran was responsible for crippling an American warship, the Reagan Administration ordered the Navy to retaliate. Navy officers gathered in Bahrain on 16 April to plan the response. Their plan, dubbed as Operation Praying Mantis, called for sinking an Iranian frigate and/or disabling observation stations on Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf.
The morning of 18 April 1988, a surface action group comprised of the destroyers USS Merrill and USS Lynde McCormick announced the start of the operation by warning the occupants of one platforms: "You have five minutes to abandon the platform; I intend to destroy it at 0800." The warships and the platform’s defenders exchanged fire for several minutes before the guns on the platform were silenced. Another group, centered around the guided missile cruiser USS Wainwright, opened fire on a second oil platform.
The Iranian Navy responded by sending the fast attack craft Joshan to engage the American warships. The commander of the Wainwright warned the Joshan, "stop your engines, abandon ship, I intend to sink you." The Joshan fired a Harpoon missile at the U.S. vessels, and Wainwright and her escorts engaged the ship with missiles and then finished it off with gunfire.
Two more Iranian warships, the frigates Sahand and Sabalan, entered the fight, engaging U.S. Navy aircraft launched from USS Enterprise. The aircraft engaged both frigates, sinking the Sahand (with the help of a Harpoon fired from USS Joseph Strauss) and heavily damaging the Sabalan. The Iranians reportedly fired Silkworm antiship cruise missiles from shore emplacements, but the U.S. vessels responded with antiaircraft missiles of their own, and no American ships were struck. A number of smaller Iranian ships attempted to engage the surface action groups, but were destroyed or driven off.
The Navy’s combat performance was impressive: two hostile major surface combatants destroyed and a third one crippled, hostile surveillance platforms put out of action, no U.S. casualties. The operation demonstrated to the Iranians that even though smaller than the Navy that fought the Kaiser, American naval forces could still dominate the Iranian Navy ... and didn't have to go to Syria to do it. Our Harpoon and Standard missiles proved to be considerably more lethal than horses and bayonets.
And Mitt Romney has no idea that any of this ever happened.
Sources: Operation Praying Mantis: The Surface View, U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, May 1989
Operation Praying Mantis, Wikipedia