10/05/03   I commanded the 753 in the Gulf during Operation Earnest Will in 1988. The Army called it Operation Prime Chance. It was a interesting time, the first mission of the newly formed US Special Operations Command. We operated off converted Oil Rigs paid for by the Kuwaiti Gov.

They were called Mobile Sea Bases (MSB) They were set up as Naval Special Warfare Task Units (NSWTU). Commanded by a SEAL Commander. Each MSB had two dets of MKIII PBs, a Seal Platoon. Army Helo Gunships and BlackHawks from TF-118 and TF-160 (Nightstalkers) and we had Air Force Combat Air controllers. and Marines for Barge security. The MSBs were manned By Both East Coast and West Coast NSW Units, The MSB Barge Hercules was Manned by the East Coast units, West Coast units were attached to MSB Barge Wimbrown VII.

On WimBrown VII the MKIII were PBs 753 and 757 from Special Boat Unit 13, PBs 775 and 776 were from Special Boat Unit 12.

The Hercules had PB detachments from SBU-20 and SBU-24. I don't recall all there boat numbers , I remember the 777 and 758 for sure as I worked with them on a few occasions. Mostly Each NSWTU conducted there own missions both answering to Naval Special Warfare Task Group. PB Missions were primarily Coastal and Interdiction Patrols to stop the Iranians from mining the sea lanes for Oil Tankers and Small Boat attacks on Oil Tankers.

We also conducted SEAL Support operations, and escorting oil tankers to Kuwait. Threats we faced from the Iranians in this operation were Mines, Aircraft and Missiles and our personal nemmisis, Small combatant craft operated by the Pasadaren Guard. These boats included Armed Boston Whaler types and sizes, and the fast armed Bogghamer. the Iranian had MKIII PBs also!!!, left over from the Shaw of Iran. So when on patrol if you came across other PBs you took a real hard look at them. As we Operated in the Northern Persian Gulf The Iranians used Farsi Island and and Karge Island and Bushere as their boat bases as well as Iranian controlled Oil Platforms as launching points for attacks. The Iranian Navy had several European built FACs with Exocet missiles. Every Indigenous craft in area was looked at because Oll Platform support boats could and did sow mines. The Native Dhow we knew could and did sow mines, and gather Intelligence on us. We were very worried about a Suicide Boat attack on the Barge, and one of the duties of the PBs was to not let ANY vessel within a mile of the barge. This task was called Pouncer Duty. For us on the Wimbrown VII the normal duty schedule was Patrol a day, Patrol a Day, Maintenance day, and Pouncer day, then start over. Seal Support Ops and Escort duty were extra, and could screw up the schedule!

At first we only did Night Patrols but later we did day and night patrols That made a LONG DAY. Ask any Boat Guy there, sleep was a Blessing. Maintenance day to work on the boat and get some rest was often interrupted by a SEAL op. or escorting a convoy up to Kuwait. In the Northern Gulf it was divided, the Iranians had a mythical line called The Iranian Exclusion zone officially, their "Line of Death". No one could cross that line. and most of the time we honored it. We called it the Romulain Neutral zone, a spoof on Star Trek movies. Because the Gulf is very small, a tug often moved our barges so they couldn't be targeted. and operating ranges for patrols were not large, which makes for limited movement of the barges, I remember the Barge being anchored on a known Mine field on our charts, and on a another occasion being only 16 miles from Farsi Is. When an incident happened, ship attack etc, it went down fast and it didn't take long to get there. Don't get me wrong, most old warriors will tell you it 90% of time things are Boring! The other 10% your scared to death. It was no Different there in the Gulf.

The Biggest Thing I learned about was the awesome responsibilty of command in a war zone. Your decisions made could be Life or Death for your crew.

Well I rattled on long enough, If you want to read about Operation Earnest Will, read my Barge CO.s book Inside the Navy Seals, By Gary Stubblefield.

This is only my story and view of this event. Many of My fellow Boatguys served as Boat Captains and Crewmen and have their memories as well. This was just my moment in time."

Best Regards, Jim Gray

A Bad Guy IRGC PBMKIII They would often use them as Navigational
Mother ship for Whalers.

40mm MK-19 Grenade Launcher and Dhows and GMC Jim Gray

Pasadarin Gun Boat a fast large whaler type with Twin ZU-23mm cannon on Bow. One of the boats would wind up in US hands and eventually at the Special Boat Units that hunted them.

THE INFAMOUS CASTLE ROCK GUNSHOOT

10-09-06 - Jeffrey Hunter      Jim - Remember Lt Jim Ostrich ? Now a Captain I think. He was so much FUN ! We used to take his little car, a Toyota if I remember right, and place it on the end of pier 13... SIDEWAYS !  One of our guys "Big Al", had a Buick that he used to drive down from L.A., and for some reason his key would work on the LT's car. So we were constantly . . .

10-11-06 -  Phil Garn     I saw Jeff's blurb on the gun shoot. A couple of minor corrections and additions. We were on an ACTDUTRA at SCI and had been working with HAL 5 who had been shooting in the same area, I think they shot the day before.

Officer Call - Operation Northern Hawk 1986

09-10-07 - Cmdr. Mark Bauer USNR ret. (then LT. SBU-13)   First op with the SWCL was to insert and blow a missile base on Indian Island to smithereens with a limited amount of C4. We took 818 and I skippered the op. I can’t remember if there were two boats, but I know we picked up the SEALS. PO2 Marler was sleeping at 0200 when the explosion was supposed to go off. I was the only person awake on the boat. Read More