# What was the US Navy vessel captured by the Iranians? What was its mission?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-us-navy-vessel-captured-by-the-iranians-what-was-its-mission/743110>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [January 14, 2016, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-us-navy-vessel-captured-by-the-iranians-what-was-its-mission/743110 "2016-01-14T04:07:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-us-navy-vessel-captured-by-the-iranians-what-was-its-mission/743110/41 "2016-01-15T20:46:29Z")

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This is a serious question and I don’t know the answer – when was the last time US soldiers or sailor were prosecuted or court-martialed for surrendering to the armed troops of another country? I don’t recall ever hearing of it, but I could certainly be wrong.

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**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-us-navy-vessel-captured-by-the-iranians-what-was-its-mission/743110/42 "2016-01-15T21:05:08Z")

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> [@drewder](#):
>
> Two heavily armed boats have the means to resist capture and also have a duty to do so under the US Military’s Code of Conduct.

I think there’s a term for armed resistance to capture after incursion into foreign territory.

Oh, yeah, “act of war”.

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