Monkey Attack Sidelines US Navy Sailor Bound for Strait of Hormuz Minesweeping Mission
A US Navy electronics technician found himself stranded in Thailand after a monkey scratched him during a port stopover in Phuket sidelining him from one of the most consequential American naval operations in recent memory.
The sailor, whose identity has not been disclosed, was aboard the USS Chief minesweeper when the vessel made a stopover in Phuket. During the stop, a monkey scratched him. Though officials described the wound as minor, the encounter warranted immediate medical attention due to the risk of Herpes B virus a rare but potentially fatal infection carried by macaques that the CDC classifies as a medical emergency. The sailor was subsequently evacuated to the ship’s home base in Sasebo, Japan, for proper evaluation and treatment. “Weird stuff happens,” a military official told Axios. “This was definitely an unknown unknown.”
The mission he was pulled from is anything but routine.
US President Donald Trump has ordered American forces to “shoot and kill any boat, small boats though they may be, that is putting mines in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz.” In a post on Truth Social, Trump confirmed the directive and added there would be no “hesitation,” stating that US “mine ‘sweepers’ are clearing the Strait right now.”
The order comes amid an escalating crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively blockaded since the start of the war on February 28. According to an Axios report, Iran has seeded the strategically critical waterway through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and gas ordinarily flows with mines deployed either remotely via GPS or by small boats, trapping hundreds of commercial vessels inside the Persian Gulf and halting maritime traffic through the region.
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The USS Chief pressed on toward the Strait alongside the USS Pioneer, both vessels tasked with clearing the Iranian mines. The sailor’s misfortune did not delay the broader operation. One man, one monkey, and a mission that couldn’t wait.