5th Fleet Focus: Stories of the Seas

A very interesting story about a confrontation between the Royal Australian Navy and the Iranian Navy, specifically involving Iranian gunboats and an Australian boarding party doing Maritime Security Operations in the Northern Persian Gulf has come to light. If this sounds a lot like the March 23rd incident where Royal Navy sailors were captured by Iranian gunboats, it should, as the article on the incident points out, there are a number of similarities in everything but how it ended.

The incident, which came to light yesterday, has similarities with the capture of British sailors in the Gulf earlier this year by Iranian forces.

But, unlike the Britons, the Australians refused to surrender.

A BBC journalist who broke the story said: ``The point of this story is not that the Aussies were fantastically brave and the Brits were a bunch of cowards, although I'm sure some people will interpret it that way.''

In the previously undisclosed encounter, 14 Royal Australian Navy sailors were evacuated by helicopter after being surrounded by five Iranian gunboats in December, 2004.

I recommend reading the entire thing. My favorite part:

The BBC reporter who broke the story, Frank Gardner, citing various military sources, said the Australians had pointed their guns at the Iranians and used 'colourful language' to defuse the incident.

It was made very clear the Australians would not surrender or even yield to the Iranians. The blunt language used towards the Iranians was along the lines of 'f... off'.

Commodore Gilmore said: "As Australians, I think we all know our capacity to engage, to defuse by discussion and they indeed did that."

Hmm, that almost sounds like a very American approach to me. If a US Navy sailor is ever in the position where he might "defuse" a situation by pointing his weapon at an Iranian and shouting "colourful language" I for one hope the American sailors takes the Aussie approach over the British approach.