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San Diego-Based USS Milius Sent To Protect Merchant Vessels

The USS Milius is pictured in this undated photo.
U.S. Navy
The USS Milius is pictured in this undated photo.

A San Diego-based guided-missile destroyer is one of a dozen warships accompanying U.S.-flagged merchant vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, the publication Defense One reported today.

The USS Milius, which left San Diego in October on an independent deployment, and the other vessels will shadow civilian American ships that ask for an extra margin of safety.

The move comes two days after Iranian forces seized a cargo ship flagged to the Marshall Islands and had it drop anchor off Iran's coast.

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Iranian authorities said Wednesday they took action because the company that chartered the vessel owed money to a local firm.

However, the seizure took place a few days after a flotilla of Iranian ships — that were purportedly carrying weapons bound for strife-torn Yemen — was forced to turn back after the U.S. and other countries moved naval units into the area.

"In general, U.S. naval forces will now accompany U.S.-flagged vessels that desire such support during transits of the Strait of Hormuz," Cmdr. Kevin Stephens of the U.S. Fifth Fleet told Defense One. "U.S. naval forces will transit the strait along with and nearby such shipping, although it is not as though they'll necessarily be in some sort of formation."

A second official told the publication that accompanying the vessels was a step short of escorting them.

The strait is a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman that connects the Gulf of Oman and Persian Gulf, and is heavily plied by tankers carrying Middle Eastern oil to overseas customers. The strait has been the scene of occasional tensions between Iran and U.S. naval forces.

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The 505-foot Milius is named for Navy Capt. Paul L. Milius, who ordered his seven fellow crew members to bail out as he held their badly damaged aircraft steady before it crashed in Laos in 1968. All seven were later rescued, but Milius was declared missing in action.

His body was never recovered and he was later presumed killed in action. Milius was awarded the Navy Cross posthumously in 1978.