Attacks of 9/11 sent Rep. Eli Crane into the military and shaped the way he views the Iran war
He dropped a senior year for a SEAL pipeline. In Hormuz he counted 25 to 30 gunboats coming at the convoy.
Summary
- The Washington Examiner reports Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ), a three-term congressman and former Navy SEAL, left the University of Arizona days after Sept. 11, 2001, dropping his senior year to enlist, hoping for BUD/S after his parents had wanted him to finish college and commission.
- He washed out after Hell Week (about five and a half days, three to four hours of sleep total, surf conditioning, a 35-to-40-pound bucket on the head). Two and a half years on USS Gettysburg, including a Gulf tour, put him back in the pipeline. He later completed SEAL training and deployed, including Iraq.
- On a Hormuz transit his weapons chief warned the division to man stations. Crane counted about 25 to 30 small Iranian gunboats swarming the convoy around a carrier, submarine, and escorts, a dry run he had not believed until he saw it.
- Crane told the Examiner a nuclear Iran would be 'incredibly dangerous.' The same tours made him demand sourced intelligence and a clear why before another land war, while still treating the current fight as the job of denying Tehran a warhead.
Commentary
A working father still hears a flag snap on a dry Arizona morning and knows a senior year is supposed to end with a diploma, not a drop card for a war that started on a Tuesday. He also knows 25 gunboats in a strait are not a drill when a kid is on that deck.
Dropped class. Hell Week. Gettysburg. 25 to 30 boats. The honest household already paid the first enlistment. The swarm was the lecture.
Look every working father who still sends a kid toward a fleet in the eye and answer this: if a nuclear Iran is already 'incredibly dangerous,' who still owns the next transit through that gap?
Comments
Senior year dropped. Hell Week. 25 to 30 boats. Keep that order.
I stood a deck so a convoy stayed moving. A swarm is not a photo op.
Trident later. Iraq tour. Nuclear Iran incredibly dangerous. Print the three.
Allied decks still treat a Hormuz swarm as a war file, not a story from college.
Gettysburg two-plus years. Bucket run. Examiner interview. File the three.
I still clock a dock at 2 a.m. I want the next warhead denied, not briefed as optional.
A dropped senior year is not a slogan. It is a warning the street already paid.
A 30-boat swarm is a second 9/11 in miniature. The first transit should have been the last lesson.
The Examiner printed the drop, the 25 to 30 boats, and the nuclear line. Argue those nouns.
Keep the strait. Keep the warhead denied. A SEAL's count is not a metaphor.
