When Iran challenged American sea power in the spring of 1988, the Navy’s response in Operation Praying Mantis was swift and deadly.
At sundown in the Persian Gulf on 18 April 1988, a day filled with missiles, naval gunfire, and bombing, two Iranian oil platforms were aflame and several Iranian vessels, including three warships, were sunk or disabled. An American helicopter and two Marine pilots had been lost. The day’s conflict, involving nine American warships and a carrier air wing, remains the largest surface naval action for the United States since World War II.
