04/11/2026
STRAIT OF HORMUS
MARK'S ACCOUNT OF DEFENDING A SUPPLY SHIP FROM IRANIAN ATTACKERS. From his book 'Su***de Stalks the Sniper'
2003
Let’s Do Routine Maintenance on Your 50-Caliber Gun. Just When You Need it Most
On this particular occasion, our unit was called up on short notice and we boarded the USNS Pecos, a USNS ship to provide security because it was carrying more than seven million gallons of jet fuel.
We then set up our protocol of a 360-degree defense and an emergency QRF (Quick Reacting Force) SRT (Special Response Team) that we simplified to React. Generally speaking, an M2 50-caliber machine gun on both port and starboard sides at mid ship, one aft, and a 240g in the react room to go anywhere at a moment’s notice.
As chance would have it, during our journey up toward and into the Persian Gulf, we had to sail through the Strait of Hormuz, a notorious chokepoint where U.S. ships were attacked and harassed by the Iranian Republican Guards (IRG). And by second chance, it was my turn to be up on watch (the grueling twelve hours On, twelve hours off), but the off section was on react. So, I was stationed on watch up on the port side (left) of the Pecos, and I was on the 50 caliber guarding the left side of the railing at post number nine. Petty Officer McEvoy was on the bow (post twelve) and Petty Officer Rebeca Robinson was on the 50 caliber on the starboard side (post three).
As we entered the danger zone of the Strait of Hormuz, we were ordered into condition one. The conditions refer to the status of the 50 calibers, and were straightforward:
• Condition four—no magazine/belt inserted.
• Condition three—mag/belt inserted, no round chambered, safety on.
• Condition two—mag/belt inserted, no round chambered, safety off.
• Condition –one—mag/belt inserted, round chambered, safety off. In other words, ready to rock and roll.
So, we were ordered to be ready to rock and roll and be on high alert. At this point, I really was not expecting anything to happen.
But then the most bizarre and crazy order came over the radio. “Post nine, … Eagle (chief of the guard).”
I responded, “This is nine, … send it Eagle.”
The chief of the guard responded that Guns (Petty Officer Gregory) was coming up to take down my 50 caliber to do maintenance on it. This was really frustrating. What?!?! You’re going to take down the biggest gun we got while we are going through the most dangerous part of our journey!?!?
Well, in the military you follow orders. “Okay, eagle, if that’s your call come and take it down.”
Sure enough, Guns came up with Petty Officer Drain and Petty Officer Heughs (JZ, as we called him). They dismounted the 50-caliber off the port-side railing, put it on the deck, and began the maintenance.
As they were beginning, I looked out on the horizon and to my surprise I saw four small contacts on the horizon. Hmm … That don’t look good. As I watched, they seemed to take an eerie heading straight for us. I watched, I watched, and I listened to the radio traffic between Eagle and Petty Officer McEvoy on post twelve at the bow, “Uh … Eagle, post twelve, I got four speed boats bearing 330 degrees and closing rapidly, come in, hello.”
I radioed my confirmation of the four fast movers to Eagle also. “Hey Eagle. Are you seeing this?” It was uncertain if they were even on the bridge where they were supposed to be. You see, the chief that we had, with the two LPOs (leading petty officers), spent most of their time in the ship’s air conditioning sleeping or doing whatever they pleased and had conveniently taken themselves off the watch bill. So, the lower-ranking enlisted were the only ones who spent twelve hours out on the frying pan of the ship’s steel decks with no shade.
“Eagle, post nine. The four contacts are about 1,500 yards, bearing 285, and closing fast. Looks like they are armed.” There is really no way to describe the shock or adrenaline dump unless you were there.
At this time the COG (chief of the guard, or Eagle as we called him over the radio) finally decided to order a flare launch. Basically, we fired a small, hand-held pen that shoots a red fireball way up in the air, similar to a marine flare. But I had already passed mine on to P.O. Drain, and he ran up to the bow at post twelve. As they closed to about 500 yards from our port side, shots rang out from their positions. There is a debate between the deck slaves and the AC dwellers as to whether they were just shooting in the air or directly at us, but the metallic plinks on the ship’s hull were all I needed to hear.
Regardless of party perceptions, Petty Officer McEvoy and I opened up simultaneously with our M-16s in response to the four threats. He had his rifle on full auto, whereas I was just using more careful, accurate single shots. His wall of water was kicking up like a line stretching from in front of the attackers and across one of the IRG vessels.
My shots were aimed directly at the occupants of the two boats closer to me. Three of the speedboats broke hard to their right (starboard) and sped along our ship, parallel, until they could no longer be seen. One speedboat broke to their left (port), and barely cleared the bow of our ship where Mac was. One of the attackers went to the deck in that boat. They proceeded due 180 degrees until they were gone.
While this was going on, one of the first-class petty officers who was on deck and who had followed the stupid order to take down my 50-caliber, froze with his mouth open
and was useless from then on. JZ actually had to pick up the 50 caliber all by himself and put it on the gun rack on the railing. Unfortunately, he got the crew’s serve weapon up and ready after the boats had already turned tail and fled. Thank God I still had my M-16 with me on post as a backup.
A couple of hours later, they called Mac and me up to write an incident report about what happened. Get this … we were not allowed to write what we had actually witnessed. No! They told us what to write.
In hindsight, I believe it was because they were not on their post, up at the eagle (the bridge), and would have been court-martialed if the truth came out. But we were on an EST and our officers were back in Bahrain, so there was no justice way out there on the sea.
