Source Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps vessels harassed US Coast Guard ships earlier this month. The incident occurred while two Coast Guard cutters were operating in international waters. The last time this happened was in 2020, when IRGC vessels swarmed US Navy and Coast Guard ships. I did a quick search to see if this was any other place on the boards and couldn't find, so I apologize if this has been posted and or discussed. I also see that this news was from late April, but I just heard about it yesterday and found it very perplexing. What is perplexing, and maybe we have some Navy Squids that can maybe detail why the US coast guard would be operating some 6,700 miles from the nearest US coast? Granted, I think I've heard the coast guard assist during war time, but in a limited capacity and not during idle time. Would love someone with some expertise to help, at least me, understand the what's and the why's.
Can't answer that. Spent two six month deployments in the Gulf and remember no Coast Guard ships operating in the area. Spent a lot of time in the bilge so maybe I missed it?
The pretext was to provide support due to the wars but apparently there are no plans to decommission the base now that we have it. They just sent their first new sentinal fast response cutters there this year and are supposed to replace all the existing boats with them over the next few years.
Iranians act threatening, Palestine is shooting rockets into Israel, Russia and China are spreading their influence - the world senses weakness.
I can't think of a time when those things were not happenning. I suspect they are not sensing weakness so much as probing for it.
Yeah, probably in our best interest to have even a small full time force there. We went to the base in Bahrain about every month while deployed but can't remember what branch the base even belonged to. What I know is after 4 weeks of doing circles in the desert heat (down to the mid 90s at night) it was the one place we could get cold beer.
Thanks for this... It just seems a poor use of our assets after the war subsided as it seems we are overextending our local assets when China is especially growing their fleet to be at our coast. China planning major Atlantic military base to approach US with warships and submarines – here’s what else
Like everything else with the military, there is USCG mission creep. Patrol Forces Southwest Asia--their official moniker-- is supposed to do "humanitarian" support, interdiction, piracy, etc. now in addition to support for the Navy.
To the extent that we have that silly department (I think it should have just been folded into the USAF), at least having more reservist should help keep the costs down.
Having an entire new NG command with its own rank structure and its own brass will not be cheap. And then where do you assign them? The ISS?
They know dementia Biden is asleep at the wheel. What America needs is someone like Obama and Hillary, who will bomb Muslims hard and good.
So what was being transmitted by the previous administration when this happened between 2017 and 2020?
....and when the Iranians launched missiles at US soldiers. I mean, only an incredibly weak US President would attract an attack like that, right? The right wing play this childish game with every Democrat President. When the same or worse happens to a Republican it suddenly isn't proof of weakness.
They will be doing a lot with satellites and network security apparently so having a "national guard" should allow private sector employees and the government to all stay on the same page as far as the latest and greatest technology. I know two people who have worked in the private sector with satellites. One is a not too sharp guy who worked more on the business side trying to sell company mapping data and such--basically something the government doesn't need. The other one barely acknowledges that he has a job with anybody specific who works at some place in the southwest he cannot disclose doing something with satellites that he cannot discuss. He is a crazy smart mathematician and is the kind of guy the government could benefit from having in the geek force. Even his family members know very little about his job because it is so high security. They know it is not with the government, involves satellites, and they know where he lives. That is pretty much all they know about his work. The only reason I know any of this or him is because I am friends with his sister and have met him a few times. He is the best at giving non-answers to every question anybody asks him.
