Abdulateef Al-Mulhim

By : Abdulateef Al-Mulhim

Decades ago Saudi Aramco’s Television Channel 3 used to be a huge source of entertainment for Saudi families in the Eastern Province of the Kingdom.

People with television sets would gather in their living rooms to enjoy the TV broadcast from the afternoon to around 10 or 11 at night. Those were the days of black and white television and on windy days people would need to adjust their television antennas on the roof of their houses. During my childhood back in the 1960s, I liked to watch American movies and sitcoms. My favorites were Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie, The Flipper and many more. However, the weekly sitcom that continues to remain etched in my memories is McHale’s Navy.

This sitcom helped shaped my career choices. It was this sitcom that inspired me to join the navy. That show made me realize that a career in the navy was more than a normal job; it was more of an adventure and fun. Interestingly, I joined the navy and received my education and training in this field by the United States Navy. Let me clarify that the US Navy was very different from what I had seen in McHale’s Navy.

When I graduated from the New York Maritime College in 1979, I began my advanced training conducted by the US Navy. I was exposed to the US Navy routine when I was being trained aboard their ships and schools in many naval bases in Virginia, Rhode Island and California. I have learned a lot and know a great deal about the US Navy and its style of working. Its crew is the best trained and dedicated. The US Navy has all kind of ships and weapons that many naval forces around the world can dream of. In addition to this superior infrastructure, they have the most liberal rules of engagement. In other words, their ships’ captains have the authority to defend their ships the minute they their homeports. Because the US Navy is seen in every waterway around the globe, it is likely to see it being in action without any warning.

For example the US Navy F-14’s shot down two Libyan Su-22 Fitters in the Gulf of Sidra on Aug. 19, 1981. The action was taken without notifying the American Commander-in-chief till hours later after the engagement. Also, we remember the downing of Iran Air Flight 655, which was a civilian passenger plane on July 3, 1988. The Iranian aircraft was shot down by the US Navy guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes. Iran’s air passenger plane was mistaken for an Iranian Air Force F-14. In other words, US Navy ships are always ready for combat and would return fire if fired at. So, if the US Navy is the most powerful and the most feared navy in the world, then what made a much weaker navy to be able to capture two US Navy armed boats, and have their crew surrender without any distress signal or call for assistance from other US Navy ships in the area? And why would two small patrol boats transit from Kuwait to Bahrain without having clear instructions or without air cover or monitoring. And what is worse is that the US Navy didn’t even know the whereabouts of the two boats for many hours. This is not the US Navy people knew about or heard about.

The Iranian navy was able to track, warn and capture the two boats and their crew and nobody knew about it. Anyone who knows the US Navy can’t accept what really happened or what the American boats were doing so close to an Iranian island. In other words, what happened to the communication procedure between ships from the same force? Also, as far as we have read, most of the equipment in the two boats were untouched. Wasn’t the crew supposed to destroy the communication and any ciphering equipment and documents? And just two days later the world learned about the prisoners’ swap and a lift of sanctions. And finally, please note that I didn’t talk about the first US Navy Jack that read…. Don’t Tread On Me. In other words, don’t mess with me. But, the Iranian did and they got away with it. They were even awarded. Sanctions were lifted.

Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in the Column section are their own and do not reflect RiyadhVision’s point-of-view.

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