Hmmm usdefensewatch is all angsty about this. I'd like to read the actual report, not excerpts. That said, I'm going to quote myself from the original thread:
Sooooo. I have actually trained with that Riverine squadron. also the one on the east coast. Those guys (the coxswains of small craft) are barely competent sailors. By doctrine, they are supposed to provide security for US Army Logistics Over the Shore operations. We plan on doing that ourselves, because in the Chesapeake Bay it's 50/50 they will get there on time. I 100% believe that navy officer that was violating the Code of Conduct: Those tool's got lost, and were picked up by the Iranian's before they could figure it out. It's not a conspiracy, it's lowest common denominator boat handling. We (the Army) normally know our position to within .5 NM or so. We train, and routinely use, GPS, RDF, visual, and celestial navigation. My experience with small (read less than 300 or so ft) Navy boats, is that if it isn't on their commercial grade chartplotter, they don't know it.
On the coxswain refusing an order? There are some questions. A competent officer would have been looking at that whole situation and trying to pick the
least risky way to save his crew and boats. There was no good choice by that time. Are the Iranians really going to shoot? After all they don't actually want a war either. Can we limp out to international waters? If they take us what is the threat to the crews? What is the threat to the security of the boats and onboard equipment? Gotta pick the least crappy option and go with it, as there are real risks to each choice. The thing is, assuming the chain of command is as we've been told, that's the LT's call. The Coxswain (of the 802) doesn't get to make that. Right or wrong when the commander says "we go left" that's what you do. Now, I will amend that to say it's possible that the LT, while the ranking person present, wasn't actually in command. If there wasn't an actual "This is the convoy/flotilla, and the LT is in charge" then the individual responsibility for the safety of the boats and crew stays with the Master of each boat. i.e. the Coxswain.
IF that's the situation and the LT was kinda riding along, the Coxswain was legal to make his own call on his boat. For example: I often take Generals out on PAO rides. As soon as we throw lines and get underway, I'm in [legal] command of the vessel, crew and passengers. Stars down to LT aides. We do what I say. (That being said, I tend to pay pretty close attention to what the Generals want :) )
So we'd need to know specifically what the command structure of that little flotilla was in some detail.
Personally, from what I know of their situation, I'd have bluffed them and headed for sea. The Iranian's didn't KNOW they weren't in contact with 5th Fleet, and no one wants to be the first to pull a trigger. Aim for sea, engines dead slow ahead, and don't turn.
Pretty much everything the crews did after capture was stupid, and professionally embarrassing. (Except the sailor that hit the beacon (I assume an EPIRB)) It also sounds like they shouldn't have gotten underway at all as the boats don't sound seaworthy, much less ready for ops in the Gulf.
Are you serious? So, it is unlawful for a officer to order his men to fight against the enemy?
It's worth remembering that however much you don't like them, we ARE NOT at war with the Iranians, so overt aggression would indeed have been an illegal order. The ROE in CENTCOM/The Persian Gulf are pretty dang specific, and from what has been described so far, shooting at the Iranians would not have been authorized, or legal. If they had actually shot at us that would be different.
Shitty training, shitty SOPs, shitty equipment, and shitty seamanship put those crews into a situation where there wasn't actually any good choices, just an array of bad ones. They still seem to have managed to pick the worse ones.