Tartan Terror to the rescue

By Graham Davis

Stuart pictured here leaving Sydney on her way to The Gulf.

Australia’s HMAS Stuart has gone to the aid of seven sailors after a sea-borne attack on an off-shore oil terminal near Basra in the northern Persian Gulf.

A composite crew of US Navy and US Coast Guard sailors left their patrol boat in a RHIB to check a dhow entering restricted waters around one of the Iraqi oil terminals.

As the boarding party was warning the dhow to move away from the area a violent explosion tore the dhow apart. The RHIB was capsized, and the boarding party sustained casualties.

Subsequently, two small watercraft were involved in an unsuccessful attack on the oil facility.

Australia’s HMAS Stuart under CMDR Phil Spedding was the onsite task group command vessel for Coalition ships in the area.

At the time of the attacks HMAS Stuart’s Seahawk was in the air conducting surface searches. It headed straight for the scene, hovered and reported the activity below.

CMDR Spedding ordered the launching of a RHIB from his ship. The RHIB, with medics on board, sped to the scene picking the injured sailors from the sea.

The RHIB took the injured back to Stuart where treatment in the ship’s casualty station continued.

The ship’s Seahawk alighted and the injured were flown to Camp Doha in Kuwait City and then on to hospital.

Stuart maintained a patrol near one of the terminals to prevent any further incidents while other Coalition vessels patrolled the facility.

No members of Stuart’s ship’s company were involved in the boarding operation in question, nor were any injured as a result of the attacks.

HMAS Stuart began operations in The Gulf earlier this month as part of ongoing operations in support of the rehabilitation and stabilisation of Iraq.

In a press conference later, Prime Minister John Howard said he had originally planned to visit Stuart on Anzac Day but her priority was with the injured.

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