Been busy, and have not had a chance to respond to those on the Cole being asleep, claimeth thee.
I am sorry, but when you have a naval ship unable to cope with a outboard rowboat with a jerking Mercury, you are asleep, at least by military standards.
There is all the equiptment you need on a ship to focus on this kind of fly, enough so that it minimizes any happy-trigger-can't-bear-the-stress sailor from gumming up the works and starting an incident.
The captain of the Cole, if fact, should step down.
Wonder if that perception would strain the penchant of the military for those kinds of incidents?
Once my ships Executive Officer was suspicious of a small boat that was comeing alongside. He told me and the guys in my shop to get some heavy pipes and stack them where we could use them as spears to sink the boat if he ordered it.
I thought he was nuts at the time , since then , we have had the Cole incident and I recall how often small boats and scows belonging to the locals were alongside selling us stuff or carrying away our trash. Now I think he was wiser than I was then , but the Pipes would still have been an innefective defense .
A few months later we added four M-2 machine guns to our weponry , this was in answer to the Irainans harrassing us with small boats manned with Martyers at that time. Our five inch guns would have worked well enough but the ammunition for a Ma Duce is cheaper.(and more appropriate at short ranges).
