I was on the USS Cole hours after it was hit by a suicide boat in the port of Aden, Yemen. It’s a tough situation to be in.

It appears that security forces got a little trigger happy aboard a U.S.N.S. supply ship, and opened up on a white pleasure craft. It’s a tough situation to be in and hard for me to arm chair quaterback but I’m wondering if warning shots were fired first. Usually that’s protocol if the situation is noticed in time but I’m wondering if the boat (apparently with no comms) got too close and never had a chance.

If there’s one good thing that comes out of all of this, it’s that it sends a clear message to all in the area, don’t fuck with U.S. warships or you’ll get a 50cal 290 grain headache.

From ABC News

An American Navy ship fired on a boat in the Persian Gulf today, killing one person and injuring three others aboard the craft, U.S. naval officials told ABC News.

Lt. Greg Raelson, a spokesperson for the Navy’s 5th Fleet, which is based in nearby Bahrain, said that a security team aboard the oil supply ship U.S.N.S. Rappahannock fired a .50 caliber machine gun at a “small motor vessel after it disregarded warnings and rapidly approached the U.S. ship” off the coast of Jebel Ali, a city approximately 30 miles from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

The Navy has launched a joint investigation with the UAE into the incident as details continue to emerge. A defense official described the offending vessel was a white pleasure craft, but two UAE officials told ABC News it was a fishing boat with four Indians and two Emiratis on board. The UAE’s official news agency identified an Indian fisherman as the man who was killed.

There doesn’t appear to be any indication the incident was terror-related, one of the UAE officials said.

Read the rest here.