Washington – A U.S. Navy captain who was in charge of 10 American sailors briefly held by Iran in January has been relieved of command because of a “loss of confidence in his ability to command,” a Navy statement said on Friday.
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Ten U.S. sailors, who were aboard two patrol craft, were detained by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Jan. 12 when they inadvertently entered Iranian territorial waters. They were released the next day after being held for about 15 hours.]
Captain Kyle Moses, commander of Task Force 56, was the second person to be publicly reprimanded so far over the incident. In May, Commander Eric Rasch, who was the executive officer of the coastal riverine squadron that included the 10 sailors, was fired.
Vice Admiral Kevin Donegan, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, said he had taken corrective action against Moses several weeks ago.
“However, after thoroughly examining the findings of the final, comprehensive investigation, I determined that this additional action was necessary,” Donegan said in the statement.
Findings of the five-month investigation will be presented by Admiral John Richardson, the chief of U.S. Naval Operations, at a briefing in the Pentagon on June 30 where he will give more details on the incident.
Why wasn’t any “action” taken against Iran,instead of making scapegoats out of our dedicated military ? Please don’t answer …..we all know the reason !!!!
when will their commander in chief who is friends with the ayatollah get charged?
This is typical of the United States Navy; after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, in 1941, the Navy relieved Admiral Kimmel of his command. General Short of the U.S. Army was also removed from his position at Pearl Harbor. Instead of Congress blaming the big shots in the intelligence community for that surprise attack, they took their wrath out on two poor schnooks, who became the fall guys. In 1968, the USS Pueblo was seized by the North Koreans. One American sailor was killed, and the rest of the crew (nearly 100 men), were beaten, starved, tortured, and physically and mentally abused by the N. Koreans for nearly a year, before they were forced to apologize and sign phony confessions. When they came home, the U.S. Navy went after the skipper of the Pueblo, Commander Bucher, with a vengeance. Fortunately, he was never court martialed, but his career was ruined, and he had to resign from the Navy. After 9/11/01, instead of Congress going after the big shots in the CIA and FBI, whose malfeasance and negligence led to the terrorist attacks, it did nothing. To this day, not one bureaucrat in government has ever been punished for 9/11.