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Bradley Peniston

@navybook.bsky.social
537 followers 328 following 38 posts

Executive editor, Defense One. Author of two books about the U.S. Navy. Knows just enough about scripting to be dangerous.

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Bradley Peniston @navybook.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
7/ But a strange amnesiac effect surrounds the threat of mines. No weapon has sunk more ships since World War II. Yet U.S. minehunting forces are perennially underfunded.
The minehunting ship USS Avenger undergoes a shock trial to test its resistance to mine damage.
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Bradley Peniston @navybook.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
6/ The Roberts' story is now a touchstone of Navy schoolhouses, where instructors exhort officers and enlisted sailors to master the grueling business of damage control.
A day or two after the sailors of the damaged USS Samuel B. Roberts saved their ship, a helicopter captured this photo of their fighting spirit as their frigate was towed to port.
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Bradley Peniston @navybook.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
5/ Mines damaged six more vessels that year. Then the threat appeared to recede—until April 14, 1988, when the Roberts ran into a newly laid string of them.
This still from a Navy video shows three mines on the deck of the Iran Ajr, an Iranian minelayer captured in the Persian Gulf by US Navy SEALs in September 1987 during the secret Operation Prime Chance.
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Bradley Peniston @navybook.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
3/ The first convoy began with U.S. warships escorting the supertanker Bridgeton. Then the giant ship hit a mine. Thanks to her double hull, the tanker sailed on—with the thin-skinned Navy ships huddled in her wake.
The hull of SS Bridgeton, up on blocks in a drydock after striking an Iranian mine in the Persian Gulf during the first convoy escort mission of Operation Earnest Will. The photo shows the damage done by the mine.
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Bradley Peniston @navybook.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
2/ The attack came nearly a year after Iranian minelayers first took U.S. planners by surprise. In 1987, Washington began escorting reflagged Kuwaiti tankers through the Persian Gulf. The convoy effort was dubbed Operation Earnest Will.
A lookout on a US Navy warship keeps watch for mines and other threats during Operation Earnest Will, during which the US Navy escorted reflagged Kuwaiti tankers through the wartorn Persian Gulf.
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Bradley Peniston @navybook.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
🧵1/ Thirty-eight years ago today, an Iranian mine tore a hole in the hull of the USS Samuel B. Roberts. The blast broke the frigate's keel, flooded its engineroom, and lit fires on several decks. Only the well-trained crew saved it.
Artist's conception of the moment the USS Samuel B. Roberts, a U.S. Navy guided missile frigate, struck an Iranian mine in the Persian Gulf on April 14, 1988.
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Bradley Peniston @navybook.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
On this day in 1988, the USS Samuel B. Roberts struck an Iranian naval mine in the wartorn Persian Gulf. The explosion blew a hole in the hull and broke the ship’s keel. Over the next five hours, the ship’s crew fought fire and flood to save their ship.
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Bradley Peniston @navybook.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
And for good measure, the "Reforming Foreign Defense Sales" EO is listed twice on the Executive Orders page.
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Bradley Peniston @navybook.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
4) The URL for the "Reducing Competitive Regulatory Barriers" EO points to the "Reforming Foreign Defense Sales" EO.
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Bradley Peniston @navybook.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
3) The URL for the "Reforming Foreign Defense Sales" EO points to the "Reducing Competitive Regulatory Barriers" EO.
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Bradley Peniston @navybook.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
2) The URL for the "Modernizing Defense Acquisitions" EO points to the Susman Godfrey EO.
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Bradley Peniston @navybook.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
1) The URL for the EO punishing the Susman Godfrey law firm points to the EO for "Restoring America's Maritime Dominance."
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Bradley Peniston @navybook.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
The White House released seven executive orders today. In its rush, someone mixed up several of the URLs. A thread:
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