Patrolling the Gulf: U.S. Vessels Challenge Every Freighter and Tanker : Sanctions: The frigate Bradley fired one of the first shots in the confrontation. Its skipper aggressively enforces the U.N. embargo.

“I try to be aggressive in my patrol area,” said Cmdr. Kevin J. Cosgriff, skipper of the U.S. Navy ship that fired one of the first rounds of the confrontation in the Persian Gulf.

His ship is the guided-missile frigate Robert G. Bradley, and its motto is “Power to Prevail.” Cosgriff, a thoughtful, 41-year-old New Yorker, is using all the power the Bradley has to enforce U.N.-mandated economic sanctions against Iraq.

With other U.S., British and French warships in the gulf, the Bradley is charged with intercepting seaborne cargoes to and from Iraq and occupied Kuwait.

Two weeks after the Iraqi invasion, the Bradley fired across the bow of an Iraqi tanker, attempting to stop it. The tanker steamed on, and Cosgriff’s orders that day were simply to continue tracking it.

Now the American vessels are operating under a U.N. Security Council resolution that gives them the power to crack down. Every tanker and freighter is being challenged.

“We average about 10 call-ups a day,” Cosgriff told reporters on board his warship Thursday in the central gulf.

He referred to radio calls from the Bradley and its two helicopters, demanding a full report on cargo and intentions from merchant ships in his area.

One of Thursday’s calls went to the Kriti Feloxenia, a tanker of Greek registry. An officer on the Bradley’s bridge, who could see the tanker clearly in his binoculars, delivered the message.

“Tanker Kriti Feloxenia,” he said, “this is the U.S. Navy warship on your port quarter. What is your port of registry?”

“Piraeus,” the tanker’s captain responded. In answer to further questions, he said he was carrying diesel fuel from the Saudi Arabian gulf port of Jubail to Yanbu on the Red Sea coast.

The answers, the look of the tanker and the feel of the situation persuaded Cosgriff to let the ship proceed.

Thursday morning, the Bradley’s helicopters checked out “six or seven” other ships in the patrol area, according to Lt. Rick Groenenboom, one of the pilots. The choppers, which operate within a 100-mile radius from the ship, are equipped with radar and extend the range of the Bradley’s radar.

“We were up about 3 1/2 hours,” Groenenboom said. “We spot them, we call them up and sometimes we go in for a close look.”

This means bringing the chopper to within about 100 yards of the ship, close enough to read the name on the stern.

So far, Cosgriff has not ordered a ship boarded, but his crew is prepared if necessary. Coast Guard Ensign John Kondratowicz heads a four-man boarding party, and he would expect to check cargoes, cargo manifests and sailing orders. Like other officers and sailors on the Bradley, Kondratowicz, a native of the Cape Cod, Mass., area, described Cosgriff as the man he would want in a tight situation.

“He’s excellent,” Kondratowicz said. “If we have to go to war, I’d follow him anywhere.”

The Bradley, Cosgriff’s first command, is an Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate. It has a crew of 215, and the low-key skipper appears to know them all by name.

Cosgriff has been around. He started out in the Merchant Marine and served on an ammunition ship plying the Saigon River in the Vietnam War.

“I was 19 then,” he said, “and immortal. Now I’m 41.”

His Navy experience includes 10 years of sea duty and a stint in Washington with the Defense Intelligence Agency, as a Soviet navy analyst.

This is Cosgriff’s third tour in the gulf. The Bradley was en route from its home port, Charleston, S.C., when the Iraqis invaded, and the frigate was suddenly front-page news.

Steven O’Brien, a 21-year-old signalman from Howell, Mich., said, “I couldn’t believe it at first when we shot at that Iraqi ship.” But he quickly realized that the stakes in the gulf were high.

The Bradley, which was patrolling Thursday an hour by helicopter out of Manama, Bahrain, is one ship in a screen of Western vessels enforcing the blockade. On any given day, adjoining patrol sectors might be manned by other U.S. ships or by British or French ships.

Somewhere in the gulf is the battleship Wisconsin, packing the greatest firepower of the allied fleet. Cosgriff said he does not know the Wisconsin’s location, but it was somewhere north of the Strait of Hormuz.

On the eastern shore, out of sight, the Iranian navy is active. The Bradley and other American ships have made occasional radio contact.

“He (the Iranians) knows who I am, I know who he is,” Cosgriff said of these contacts. “It’s not chatty. It’s very professional. It’s not adversarial.”

The only player not present in the gulf is Iraq. Its small navy is reportedly sticking close to the Iraqi coast.

According to Cosgriff, the main concern is the potential threat of Iraqi aircraft, and mines that could still be adrift from the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War. No Iraqi planes and no mines have been encountered yet, but Cosgriff keeps a lookout “in the eyes of the ship,” directly over the bow, to watch for mines.

The ever-present problem is the climate. The temperature on the Bradley’s weather decks reaches 120 degrees at midday, and Cosgriff has rigged canvas awnings wherever possible to provide shade. Hatches are kept shut to keep the air conditioning effective in the interior spaces, and a layer of cheesecloth has been added to the filters that protect computers and other critical equipment.

“This is the worst operating environment for machinery in the world,” Cosgriff said. “Worse than the Arctic. It’s very hot, very humid, sandy and dusty. It gets into machinery, into electronics, into your eyes. I wouldn’t call these hard conditions; they’re harsh conditions.”

But in the oven of the Persian Gulf, the skipper remains cool.

THE BRADLEY: ENFORCING THE BLOCKADE

SHIP: Robert G. Bradley

MISSION: Intercepting seaborne cargoes to and from Iraq and occupied Kuwait.

CLASSIFICATION: Guided missile frigate.

DISTINCTION: Two weeks after Iraqi invasion, the Bradley fired across the bow of an Iraqi tanker, attempting to stop it. The tanker moved on, and the Bradley was constrained to do no more than to continue to track it.

HOMEPORT: Charleston, N.C..

CREW: 215

WEAPONS: 4 Harpoon missiles. 40 torpedoes. A variety of anti-surface and anti-aircraft guns. 2 helicopters.

COUNTERMEASURES: Decoys, including torpedo decoys, infra-red flares and chaff. Radar jamming and deception system.