Over the last 24hrs, the coalition has managed to take a couple of small islands in the Persian Gulf but failed to succeed at their primary mission to secure the middle of the gulf allowing them to bring in more naval units. The partial success (or partial failure depending on who you listen to) came at the cost of a couple of helicopters, A10’s and FA18’s.

A major contributing factor to the failure was due to a reduction in strike team and support crew numbers, largely due to the squadron having internal issues among themselves no longer willing to trust each other in battle after heavy disputes broke out over what to do with a fungus outbreak in the galley. Eventually, the squadron split over arguments of who wanted the fungus to remain in the galley and those who wanted it cleaned up and thrown overboard so it wouldn’t contaminate food, resulting in the coalition having only a small remnant willing to engage the hostile islands in the most recent strike – supported by a limited crew that were not able to keep the armoury sufficiently stocked during this time. The army offered assistance sending over a few A10’s but even so – the battle was fierce and costly.

Strange, almost comical scenes on the ship (if it wasn’t so serious) of sailors and pilots yelling abuse from one side of the deck to the other interrupted only when the sound of aircraft landing or launching between the two groups were witnessed – showing that much needs to be done to bring back the comradery that is desperately needed at time of war.

Whether the coalition will be able to recover, make amends and continue in the liberation effort, or whether this will mean the end of the coalitions ability to be combat effective in the gulf is yet to be seen. So far no vegans have been found among the disputing parties which indicate that hope yet remains for resolution and for level heads to prevail.

This is amateur reporter Warren Pearce reporting from the gulf.

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July 25, 2021