JUST ANOTHER DAY IN THE PERSIAN GULF(Billy Sample) JUST ANOTHER DAY IN THE PERSIAN GULF

In my years serving in the United States Navy not once was I involved in a situation of hostilities, not once did any ship I was a crew member of fire a shot in anger. I was however in many situations that were intense circumstances dealing with weather, close calls with hostiles and rescues at sea. One of those incidents occurred in August of 1986 in the Persian Gulf.

The 4th of July 1986 was spent transiting the Suez Canal on board the USS Talbot Guided Missile Frigate 4 in route to the Persian Gulf. Once arriving on post we were assigned the duty of escorting Kuwaiti merchant ships half way through the gulf then passing them off to another American vessel that would ensure their safe passage to a port in Kuwait. During this time Iran had a very disturbing habit of intercepting merchant traffic and rerouting them into Iranian ports, confiscating their cargo and much of the time the crews were never heard from again. The United States made an agreement with Kuwait to put a stop to this practice. The agreement was that the ships, inbound and outbound, would fly American flags from their mast while being escorted by an American Warship.

The trip through the gulf includes a voyage through the Straits of Hormuz. The Straits was one of the most important waterways in the world as a great deal of the Middle Eastern oil shipments were transported through this narrow corridor. At the most narrow part the distance from shore to shore is 20 miles! Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are our friends set on one side of the Persian Gulf while Iran takes up most of the other side.

The routine was that we would wait in the Gulf of Oman for the inbound ship. When they would arrive they would raise the American Flag from their mast and then follow close behind us as we would lead them though the straits. We would lead them all the way to Bahrain where we would pass the relay off to another US Warship who would take them the rest of the way to Kuwait. Once the pass off was complete we would wait for an outbound ship and reverse our course staying with the new ship until we reached open waters. These ships would either head into the Red Sea towards the Suez Canal or set sail for the Indian Ocean. We would sometimes do this two or three times a day for weeks. Refueling and down time was spent in port at Bahrain for a few days at a time.

This may not sound like very hard duty but factor in that the temperatures in gulf would reach 130 degrees by noon with 90 percent humidity. Even though the gulf is fairly wide in parts the shipping lanes were as narrow as a mile or two due to the shallowness of the waters. This meant very close proximity to vessels heading in and out of the area. Also this was a time of very stressful relations with Iran and only a few years after the overthrow of the US Embassy. Factor in the hostilities between Iran and Iraq and you were in the most dangerous part of the world!

All in all it was pretty routine until one afternoon in late August. On this day things got a little dicey. The trip through the straits always put the ship in a state of readiness. We were so close to the shore line of Iran that any potential attack would only take a few minutes to develop. There was even a sign on the bulk head of the mess decks that read “In the event of a missile launch from Iran you will have 19 seconds to either fight back, make your peace with God or kiss your ass good bye!” We weren’t at full General Quarters but we were at our assigned posts on the ready. The guns were manned, missiles were armed and lookouts were doubled.

We picked up our ship at the mouth of the gulf and then transited the straits without incident. Once into the open waters the word was passed to “secure from detail”. I was the leading Signalman on the ship and was about to send most of my crew below but for some reason I decided to take one more scan of the horizon with the oversize binoculars that were mounted on both port and starboard of the signal bridge called “The Big Eyes”.

I took a sweep of the horizon seeing only a few small fishing vessels and then an object popped up that stopped my sweep. The top of a mast was visible just over the curve. At sea you always spot the top of the mast first due to the curve of the earth. As I kept looking at the object it got taller and taller until I recognized that it was the mast of a war ship. I told one of my guys to take the big eyes and keep an eye on the contact then went into the signal shack and called the bridge. I asked the Officer of the Deck who was in the area. He told me that no other ships were supposed to be near. I called combat information center and they said they had a blip on the radar screen but it wasn’t emitting a radar signal. Ships can be identified “friend or foe” by the radar signature they send out. I told them and the bridge that from the mast configuration it certainly looked like a war ship. The OOD told me to keep an eye on it. I grabbed a head set and microphone and returned to the big eyes.

By now the super structure of the ship was visible and it was defiantly a shade of haze gray. I pressed the microphone button and called down to the bridge what I was seeing. The OOD stepped onto the starboard bridge wing which was just below where I was standing. I pointed in the direction of the vessel and gave him a bearing. Even through his less powerful binoculars he agreed with me that it was a military ship. Within minutes the hull came into sight and then I could plainly see the bow of the ship kicking up quite a wake. I told the bridge and combat that whoever this was they were headed our way and in a hurry. Combat then announced that they had just turned on their radar and the signature was Iranian!

Within seconds the Captain appeared on the bridge wing and told me not to take my eyes off the ship and tell him everything I saw. The word was passed over the intercom that all personnel were to return to their stations. I heard through my head phones that the Iranian was headed our way at a speed of 25 knots. That’s pretty close to flank speed. The ship got bigger in my sight with every minute that passed. Now I could see crew members on deck and noticed something that made my heart rate speed up. I spoke these words into my microphone.

“Bridge, Combat, Signalbridge. From what I’m seeing these guys are manned up for action! They’re in battle gear and manning their guns”.

It became obvious to us that they were planning to intercept the Kuwaiti ship, but did they really think we would let that happen? If they did they were soon going to be proven wrong in a very dramatic fashion! I heard the Captain telling me once again to let him know anything I saw to which I replied, “Aye Aye Skipper”!

I could now make out their faces, uniforms, I could see the gun crews at the 50 caliber gun stations. I could feel our ship changing course quickly. We were leading the Kuwaiti at this point but now were maneuvering so as to put our self between the two ships. As we had the merchant vessel pull around to our port (left) side the Iranian changed his course in an attempt to flank us to put them between us and the Kuwaiti. Another course change by them and then a counter move by us. The space between us and them was probably less than a couple of hundred feet at times. They would slow down to try and duck around behind us so we would decrease speed which would cause our stern and their bow to be dangerously close.

As the Iranian pulled to our port side I could no longer see them through the big eyes. I remember feeling a little dizzy after taking my eyes off the scope. The Kuwaiti merchant was then ordered to speed up and crossed our bow to take position on our Starboard (right) side. Again, the Iranian slowed to circle behind us and again we slowed. We were all wondering how long this would go on. The answer came with a call from Combat to the bridge. They had picked up on radar two more small contacts headed our way and closing fast but from the other side of the gulf, the friendly side. There was a pause and then Combat added that they had radio communications with the contacts. They were Saudi Arabian gun boats, the cavalry was on the way!

I crossed to the Port side where one of my signalmen was manning the big eyes on that side. He told me he had them and they were “hauling ass”!

By this time the positions had changed again with the Kuwaiti ship back on our port bow (left front), the Iranian off our starboard quarter (right rear). Now they sped up running almost side by side with us about a hundred feet distance between the two vessels. The Saudis crossed under our stern and turned up easing their boats between us and the Iranian single file.

I returned to my big eyes and focused on the gun boats. There looked to be ten men on each boat and 50 caliber guns trained on our adversary. I switched to the Iranian bridge wing and could see whom I presumed to be the captain standing on the bridge wing with a pair of binoculars. I thought “dude, this is looking like a really bad idea on your part”!

The Saudis began to ease outward away from us and toward them. As they crept closer the Iranian began to move away. The closer the Saudis moved to them the farther they moved away. Now the distance had gone to two hundred feet, then three hundred and kept increasing with every minute. They were literally pushing these guys away from us. This was just too cool and fascinating. A very intense situation was being defused right in front of us!

After ten or fifteen minutes the Iranian altered course and turned. Then just as fast as it all started, they were gone! Disappearing in the distance. I watched them as the tip of their mast disappeared over the horizon. The gun boats also left the scene with little acknowledge to us. The word was once again passed to secure from detail. The whole incident was surreal and the subject of many topics of discussion for quite some time.

I never found out what prompted the Saudi gun boats to join us or how they knew what was happening. I don’t know if there were communications between them and the Iranian Destroyer or even if they really thought we would just let them take the Kuwaiti merchant with them. Maybe they were just testing us? Whatever this was all about it was the closest I ever came to a direct conflict with a foe. When I look back on the whole incident it is a little scary but at the time my shipmates and I were just doing our job.

When the USS Talbot returned to Mayport Florida in December of 1986 seven crew members were awarded Navy Achievement Medals. I was one of the seven. There was no details or particular circumstances given for the award it was simply written on the certificate as “Out Standing Performance in Duties of a Member of the United States Navy”. I like to think that my time spent with my eyes pasted to those oversize binoculars played a part in the award.

That was the life of a Sailor in the Persian Gulf in 1986.

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