25 Years Ago: Destruction Of Iranian Navy Led To Tragic, Unintended Consequence

By Philip Devlin

Few people realize that the largest American naval confrontation at sea since World War II took place 25 years ago this month in April of 1988. While on patrol in the Persian Gulf during the protracted war between Iran and Iraq, lookouts on the missile-carrying frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts spotted a minefield. The ship, named after a Guadalcanal war hero from California, attempted to avoid the minefield but accidentally contacted one that blew a large hole in her side. Heroic action from the ship’s damage control team kept the vessel afloat, while ten wounded men were flown by helicopter to a hospital for help. Fortunately, no Americans died in the incident, but the retrieval of the Roberts had tragic consequences.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military began to formulate a tactical response. Hartford-born General George B. Crist was in charge of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) in Florida at the time. He was the first Marine to oversee CENTCOM and directed the retaliatory response against Iran: “Operation Praying Mantis.”

The USS Samuel Roberts contacted a mine on April 14, 1988—the anniversary date of the Titanic striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic. Subsequent investigation by Navy divers, who retrieved other mines nearby, confirmed that Iran was responsible for the mines. After President Ronald Reagan approved the plan, “Operation Praying Mantis” commenced on April 18, 1988. The first phase of the operation called for the disabling of two large Iranian oil platforms that were known to be monitoring the U.S. presence in the area. Two American destroyers contacted the personnel on one of the oil rigs and ordered them off. Some left the platform; others remained on it and began to open fire with 23 mm guns at the American ships. That turned out to be a big mistake, as the destroyers disabled the guns on the platform and then an attack by a Cobra helicopter finished the job. U.S. Marines subsequently boarded the platform, gave aid to a wounded man there, and then planted explosives to blow it up. Concurrently, another Surface Action Group (SAG) attacked the other Iranian oil platform. It was so heavily damaged by the ships, that the boarding of the platform by a SEAL team was deemed unnecessary.

Meanwhile, a kind of cat and mouse game involving Iranian attack jets and high speed Iranian attack boats known as Bodghammars—similar to American PT boats of World War II—unfolded. The Bodghammars first tried attacking “soft” targets such as oil freighters, but they soon came under attack by A-6 jets launched from the carrier Enterprise. Several of the fast attack Iranian boats were either destroyed or disabled. Additionally, The USS Wainwright, a missile-carrying frigate similar to the Roberts, came under attack by an Iranian ship. That proved to be a big mistake, as both the Wainwright and the USS Simpson fired missiles and destroyed it. Iranian F-4 fighters occasionally menaced the naval ships as well; however, when locked on by radar, the F-4s wisely turned away. The sole F-4 that attempted to attack a ship was hit by a missile. 

The final phase of the attack involved the Iranian frigate Sabalan, which attempted to fire upon American fighter jets. Once again, that proved to be a big mistake as a retaliatory strike by an American A-6 flown by Lieutenant Commander James Engler deposited a missile down the smokestack of the Sabalan, disabling it. Engler subsequently received the Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions. Another Iranian frigate—the Sahand—was sunk by missiles from the USS Strauss, a destroyer named for a famous American admiral.

Overall, five Iranian vessels were sunk and one was badly damaged in the largest surface engagement by the U.S. Navy since World War II. Many believe that this crippling of the Iranian navy helped to hasten a ceasefire in the eight-year war between Iran and Iraq. One unfortunate result of the engagement, however, was the accidental downing of an Iranian airliner about 10 weeks later, when the cruiser USS Vincennes, commanded by Will Rogers III, was escorting the extraction of the damaged USS Samuel B. Roberts out of the Persian Gulf. Engaged by Iranian surface vessels, the Vincennes mistakenly fired upon a civilian airliner thought to be an attacking Iranian fighter jet. 190 people were killed, including 66 children. Though an investigation subsequently exonerated Rogers for the action, his action remains controversial; furthermore, in 1993, a pipe bomb strapped to his wife’s mini-van exploded while she was driving to school. She survived the attack, and the case remains unsolved.