The Twilight War: The Secret History of America's Thirty-Year Conflict With Iran by David Crist

Author:David Crist
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: History, Middle East, General
ISBN: 9781101572344
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2012-07-19T03:00:00+00:00

Having sunk the Sahand and dispatched the Boghammers, Engler’s and Webb’s planes topped off with fuel from an air force tanker over Oman and went looking for some reported Boghammers, which turned out to be only fishing boats. Dyer requested that they head up near Larak Island to look for the Sabalan. Looking through the black-and-white images displayed on his aircraft’s radar, he and his wingman investigated an endless string of contacts, from junked vessels to fishing dhows that pervaded the Gulf waters southeast of Qeshm Island.

At four thirty p.m., Captain Nasty finally came out to fight. Engler and Webb immediately closed in to attack.58 The Sabalan saw the approaching American aircraft and fired a surface-to-air missile (likely a shoulder-launched SA-7) at Engler’s A-6. It never came close, but Webb radioed back that they had been fired upon. Each A-6 still carried a Harpoon surface-to-surface missile. However, Larak Island silhouetted the Sabalan, and Engler feared that the Harpoon might not track with this background clutter, leading to the missile’s inadvertently hitting the Iranian mainland. He reluctantly decided against using his Harpoons—a decision he would later lament. This left Engler with a single five-hundred-pound laser-guided bomb with which to dispatch the Iranian frigate.59

Engler pushed his yoke forward and put his plane into a steep dive. His bombardier, Lieutenant Mark Herath, released their one laser-guided bomb, which went straight down the Sabalan’s smokestack. The bomb exploded deep inside the ship’s engineering spaces, giving the appearance of the ship “belching,” followed by plumes of heavy black smoke and a large oil slick on the surrounding water. The Sabalan’s captain, Abdollah Manavi, radioed over the international radio channel in heavily accented English, his voice near hysterical, “I’m sinking! I’m sinking! Send help!” For a man who had deliberately inflicted so much misery upon defenseless merchant seamen, it seemed fitting.

With the Sabalan dead in the water and no other effective ordnance, Engler and Webb reluctantly headed back to the carrier. Back on the Enterprise, the crew began spinning up another strike package to finish off the Sabalan and to address a new intelligence report of a third Iranian frigate getting under way at Bandar Abbas. The flight deck hurriedly began bringing up more munitions, and two more aircraft were readied. With the main target of Operation Praying Mantis now immobilized, the U.S. commanders itched to finish her off. Less called Zeller and asked how long before they could get aircraft back up to finish off the Sabalan. Zeller responded that it would take time, perhaps an hour. As the Sabalan had been attacked out of “self-defense,” this long delay stretched the intent of the rules of engagement. General Crist picked up the open phone and talked to Crowe. “It would be nice to sink her,” he told Crowe, “but it’s hard to say it’s self-defense at this point.”

Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci had left the Pentagon for a morning swim in the small pool of the dingy labyrinth of the Pentagon gym. A brigadier general came down to grab him, and Carlucci quickly arrived back in command center.

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