*** TRANSCRIPT: F-14 Callsign Bullet 203 and Bullet 204, USS Ranger, Persian Gulf October 19, 1987, 14:45 Delta ***
Nav Bullet 203: Phoenix armed, ready to go.
Pilot Bullet 203: Thanks bud, Bullet 204 armed?
Pilot Bullet 204: Check, ready to get me a Phantom.
Pilot Bullet 203: Stand by one; I'll give them one last warning.
Pilot Bullet 204: Pity.
Pilot Bullet 203: Iranian F-4, 18 miles northwest of my position, vacate the area immediately or we will fire.
Pilot Bullet 204: They ain't turnin' crazy sons o… [transcript inaudible]
Pilot Bullet 203: Iranian F-4, respond.
Nav Bullet 204: Birds away.
Pilot Bullet 203: What the..!
Nav Bullet 203: Weapons gone.
Pilot Bullet 204: Woah! Would you look at that!
*** TRANSCRIPT ENDS ***
So, Henry had a game yesterday and, after some cat-and-mouse scenarios, this time the gloves really came off.
Three days previously the Sea Isle City, a re-flagged Kuwaiti tanker, was hit by a Silkworm missile whilst waiting to be loaded at the Kuwait Oil Terminal. The missile struck the wheelhouse, blinding the ship's American captain. In response, the US launched Operation Nimble Archer; an attack on an oil platform in the Rashadat Oil Field.
The platform had been damaged earlier in the Tanker War and was not producing oil. Instead, it was being used as a base by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. My task was to clear the platform of Iranian forces and land a search party to find evidence to turn world, and US, opinion.
By now, US public opinion was generally accepting of the need to police the Gulf, but opposition was growing.
On hand I had a Surface Action Group comprising four destroyers, the USS Hoel, USS Leftwich, USS Kidd, and USS John Young. My plan was simple: the Kidd and the Hoel were to move to positions north and south of the platform and maintain area defence, whilst the two Spruance class would close with the platform, issue warnings for the Iranians to abandon and land a search team by helicopter once they did. In addition to my surface units I also had two pairs of F-14 Tomcats from the USS Ranger. After operating in Indian country' for the last two games I was very pleased to see them.
1330 Delta and my plan was already under way. In the deployment phase, Henry had placed the Sabalan, a British-built small frigate, just off the platform. He obviously wasn't going to let me walk in the front door.
In the tense, restricted waters of the Gulf we were already in visual range. The USS Hoel was on picket duty and skirted to the south, staying out of the 16 mile range of the Sabalan's Sea Killer missiles. More of a worry were two air contacts, circling a few miles back.
The USS Kidd, now back in the fleet after being badly damaged way back in the first game, painted these with her fire control radar, giving a warning in plain language for these to pull back. To Henry's disgust, they failed their 'resolve check' and scrammed out of range.
Just as this threat was receding, another air contact was being tracked inbound. I had a pair of F-14s on combat air patrol close to the Hoel so I was able to react to this immediately. It was a commercial airliner.
But now I had no aircraft on CAP and Henry's F-4s had recovered and were again circling about 50 miles away. My second pair of F-14s arrived so I immediately put them on CAP too far back, I felt, but I had to maintain some reactive capability with a number of unidentified air contacts still in the area of operations.
Back at the platform, the USS Leftwich was within visual range and gave the stark warning: "You have 15 minutes to evacuate before we open fire". The Iranians obviously hadn't had their Wheatabix today as, for the second time, Henry's resolve failed and they abandoned the platform.
But, with the Sabalan still hanging around I couldn't risk landing a helo to search the platform, especially after a helo from the USS John Young got a bit too close and had to scram after the Iranian ship painted it with her f/c radar. Although it wasn't able to scram fast enough to get out of range, the Iranians didn't open fire: downing one helo was not enough of a prize to risk the Americans raising cain.
It has been said that modern naval combat is like a wild west gunfight lots of tension, followed by frantic shooting. So far, Henry and I had been eyeballing each other, fingers twitching next to our six-shooters…
So far.
And then things really started to happen.
I'd moved my second pair of F-14s up to cover incoming air contacts: I had two pairs of F-14s on CAP, Henry had one pair of F-4s on CAP. It was at this point that a second pair of Iranian F4s arrived. I immediately declared an intercept with one of my Tomcat pairs, as soon as I did so, Henry declared an intercept on my Tomcats with his phantoms. I had a second pair of F-14s, so I then declared intercept on his F-4s that's a lot of intercepts!
As I was last to declare, we resolved that first the Iranian F-4s passed their resolve check and stood their ground. Brave, but against two US Tomcats that have the drop on you? The result was predictable, both planes were shot down.
In the excitement, I forgot my second CAP and play passed to Henry to complete his activation: he immediately locked on to the Tomcats that had just fired, seeking revenge. Although I passed my check, I decided to scram anyway the F-14s' wings swept back, the afterburner thundered and they put as much distance between them and the Iranians as possible. It was so darn close the pilots just managing to squeeze out of range of the Sparrow III AAMs.
But this was not the end; Henry had repeatedly (and rather rudely) ignored my warnings to pull back. The Sabalan was still locked on and I had multiple ships in range.
"Sabalan, this is US Warship, vacate the area around the platform immediately"
"US Warship, this is Sabalan: go to… [inaudible recording]"
Enough was enough. Vapour obscured the bridge of the Hoel as first one, then two Harpoon missiles whooshed off.
One hit, causing heavy damage. Henry decided not to risk any more you can only push the Americans so far, and when they do react they have overwhelming firepower.
I did offer to assist the Sabalan, especially after the fire spread and she became crippled, but Henry playing his part perfectly told me in no uncertain words that he needed no help from Satan.
But perhaps he should have accepted the fire spread out of control and, by 1600 hrs he was forced to abandon ship.
* * *
I'd fired first, but the tactical victory and fresh evidence seized on the platforms played well back home so in general public opinion hadn't shifted that much. This was about to change though; as 1987 turned to 1988 and a new spring arrived, the USS Samuel B Johnson hit a mine in the Persian Gulf. The heroics of her crew so well documented by Harold Wise in his book 'Inside the Danger Zone' saved the ship. Just.
If this had been my first surface unit damaged, the public would have been outraged and I would be riding high. But it wasn't; the USS Kidd had been hit by Iranian missiles back in July '87. With a second ship nearly sunk, public opinion began to shift dramatically and I am now down from 11 to 5: the mission to the Persian Gulf is being widely questioned and the Hawks in Washington are on the defensive. Suddenly winning a war on the other side of the globe doesn't seem so easy, no matter how much firepower you've got.
Nick
is finally getting into Team Yankee.
