<p>Well, looks like my KP'er (and other merchant mariners) will need to pass through the Iranian patroled Strait of Hormuz again in a week or two on her way to Dubai.</p>
<p>Not even finished her 2nd year at USMMA and already thrust into the middle of world affairs. </p>
<p>She didnt fret at all when when I mentioned the recent Iranian threats or that she'd be sailing right through the same waters.</p>
<p>Kings Point has given her a confidence that I never knew she had in her.</p>
<p>wow prouddad...keep us posted.</p>
<p>My daughter is heading back thru there in the next couple of weeks also. Don't know if she's aware of what's going on. I understand that they are working 8-12 hours a day and obviously no TV. I figured I won't mention it until she gets home, but I'm sure she'd be like your daughter and think we were blowing the whole danger thing out of proportion. But this will be one relieved mom when I hear from her on this side of the world!</p>
<p>Well, most of the more recent news stories say that either the threating action was somewhat 'normal' or overblown.</p>
<p>But I dont know.</p>
<p>Fact is, that this Strait is surrounded by Iran on the North, a very high percentage of the worlds oil must pass through these waters and there are alot of older articles citing that Iran views it as a possible way to cut off oil supplies and disrupt world economy. Its a real hot spot. In my mind, a likely place of confrontation if one is to ever occur.</p>
<p>Either devotion to service, work/sea project concentration or the fearlessness of youth left her with very little to say on the subject when I met her in NY last week (on my birthday no less). </p>
<p>On a very bright note, she gave me a complete tour of her ship and we had a great Italian dinner in a classy little old Staten Island mob style restaurant.
She is as proud of herself as I am of her. And she should be.
Hope every parent gets a chance like this.</p>
<p>I'm from Staten Island. What resturant was it that you went to. Maritime industry is booming here on Staten Island. Politicians are seeking to expand Maritime on Staten Island. Good news for my son if he ever wants to stay local after graduation.</p>
<p>Filipino Monkey behind threats?</p>
<p>By Andrew Scutro and David Brown - Staff writers
Posted : Sunday Jan 13, 2008 15:38:29 EST</p>
<p>The threatening radio transmission heard at the end of a video showing harassing maneuvers by Iranian patrol boats in the Strait of Hormuz may have come from a locally famous heckler known among ship drivers as the Filipino Monkey.</p>
<p>Since the Jan. 6 incident was announced to the public a day later, the U.S. Navy has said its unclear where the voice came from. In the videotape released by the Pentagon on Jan. 8, the screen goes black at the very end and the voice can be heard, distancing it from the scenes on the water.</p>
<p>We dont know for sure where they came from, said Cmdr. Lydia Robertson, spokeswoman for 5th Fleet in Bahrain. It could have been a shore station.</p>
<p>While the threat I am coming to you. You will explode in a few minutes was picked up during the incident, further jacking up the tension, theres no proof yet of its origin. And several Navy officials have said its difficult to figure out whos talking.</p>
<p>See the Pentagons version of the videoA link to the Iranian version (click the camera icon)
Based on my experience operating in that part of the world, where there is a lot of maritime activity, trying to discern [who is speaking on the radio channel] is very hard to do, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead told Navy Times during a brief telephone interview today.</p>
<p>Indeed, the voice in the audio sounds different from the one belonging to an Iranian officer shown speaking to the cruiser Port Royal over a radio from a small open boat in the video released by Iranian authorities. He is shown in a radio exchange at one point asking the U.S. warship to change from the common bridge-to-bridge channel 16 to another channel, perhaps to speak to the Navy without being interrupted.</p>
<p>Further, theres none of the background noise in the audio released by the U.S. that would have been picked up by a radio handset in an open boat.</p>
<p>So with Navy officials unsure and the Iranians accusing the U.S. of fabrications, whose voice was it? In recent years, American ships operating in the Middle East have had to contend with a mysterious but profane voice known by the ethnically insulting handle of Filipino Monkey, likely more than one person, who listens in on ship-to-ship radio traffic and then jumps on the net shouting insults and jabbering vile epithets.</p>
<p>Navy women a helicopter pilot hailing a tanker, for example who are overheard on the radio are said to suffer particularly degrading treatment.</p>
<p>Several Navy ship drivers interviewed by Navy Times are raising the possibility that the Monkey, or an imitator, was indeed featured in that video.</p>
<p>Rick Hoffman, a retired captain who commanded the cruiser Hue City and spent many of his 17 years at sea in the Gulf was subject to the renegade radio talker repeatedly, often without pause during the so-called Tanker Wars of the late 1980s.</p>
<p>For 25 years theres been this mythical guy out there who, hour after hour, shouts obscenities and threats, he said. He could be tied up pierside somewhere or he could be on the bridge of a merchant ship.</p>
<p>And the Monkey has stamina.</p>
<p>He used to go all night long. The guy is crazy, he said. But who knows how many Filipino Monkeys there are? Could it have been a spurious transmission? Absolutely.</p>
<p>Furthermore, Hoffman said radio signals have a way of traveling long distances in that area. Under certain weather conditions I could hear Bahrain from the Strait of Hormuz.</p>
<p>Cmdr. Jeff Davis, a Navy spokesman at the Pentagon, could not say if the voice belonged to the heckler.</p>
<p>Its an international circuit and weve said all along there were other ships and shore stations in the area, he said.</p>
<p>When asked if U.S. officials considered whether the threats came from someone besides the Iranians when releasing the video and audio, Roughead said: The reason there is audio superimposed over the video is it gives you a better idea of what is happening.</p>
<p>Similarly, Davis said the audio was part of the totality of the situation and helped show the aggressive behavior.</p>
<p>Another former cruiser skipper said he thought the Monkey might be behind the audio threats when he first heard them earlier this week.</p>
<p>It wouldnt have surprised me at all, he said. Theres all kinds of chatter on Channel 16. Anybody with a receiver and transmitter can hear somethings going on. It was entirely plausible and consistent with the radio environment to interject themselves and make a threatening comment and think theyre being funny.</p>
<p>This former skipper also noted how quiet and clean the radio threat was, especially when radio calls from small boats in the chop are noisy and cluttered.</p>
<p>Its a tough environment, youre bouncing around, moving fast, lots of wind, noise. Its not a serene environment, he said. That sounded like somebody on the beach or a large ship going by.</p>
<p>He said he and others believe that the Filipino Monkey is comprised of several people, and whoever gets on Channel 16 to heckle instantly gets the monicker.</p>
<p>It was just a gut feeling, something the merchants did. Guys would get bored, one guy hears it, comes back a year later and does it for himself, he said. I never thought it was one, rather it was part of the woodwork.</p>
<p>The former skipper noted that he warned his crew about hecklers when preparing to transit Hormuz. I tell them theyll hear things on there that will be insulting, he said. You tell your people that youll hear things that are strange, insulting, aggravating, but you need to maintain a professional posture.</p>
<p>A civilian mariner with experience in that region said the Filipino Monkey phenomenon is worldwide, and has been going on for years.</p>
<p>They come on and say Filipino Monkey in a strange voice. They might say it two or three times. Youre standing watch on bridge and youre monitoring Channel 16 and all of a sudden it comes over the radio. It can happen anytime. Its been a joke out there for years.</p>
<p>While it happens all over the world, its more likely to occur around the Strait of Hormuz because there is so much shipping traffic, he said.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Chris Amos and Zachary M. Peterson contributed to this report</p>
<p>
[quote]
A civilian mariner with experience in that region said the Filipino Monkey phenomenon is worldwide, and has been going on for years.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Very very true.. variations on the Filipinooooo Monkeeeeey!!!! are balute balute and Pogi Paso. Normally they are spoken over VHF channel 16 by Filipinos who want to get the attention of fellow Pinoy countymen in order to converse with them.</p>
<p>I have been under the impression that the Filipino Monkeys which... surprise surprise... I have heard more around the Philippines, were typically made by Indian sailors trying to insult the Filipinos. It is usually followed by a ridiculous amount of swearing in a dozen different languages.</p>
<p>"Filipino Monkey, Filipino Monkey, this is banana port control, over"</p>
<p>
not necessarily.. I've heard it used by those who are obviously Tagalog speaking Pinoys..</p>
<p>First time i heard it was in the Med and it lasted all the way till half way across the pacific...it was really annoying to tell you the truth. And every1 on my ship said it was insults between the greeks and the Fillipinos? Ahh the legend grows</p>
<p>So am I to understand that the threatening manners of the Iranian boats also mean little or nothing ?</p>
<p>The botom line is that we don't know what happened in the Strait of Hormuz. What we see on TV may or may not be indicative of what happened that day. All I know is that the story that I read seems a little funny to me. In tight waters, ALL US Navy ships have personnel manning the 50 cal. along the rail. If any "speedboat" was threatening, the capt. would not hesitate in defending his ship. I agree that the boats seemed to be very close on the video, but this has occured multiple times according to what I understand.</p>
<p>Well, she passed through safely again.
I guess the scare was over blown.
Thanks all</p>