Destroyer captain says the US Navy's Red Sea fight is more intense than even the Tanker War in the 1980s

• The US Navy's counter-Houthi mission has been described as its most intense combat since World War II.
• The captain of a destroyer that deployed to the Red Sea said it surpasses the dangerous Tanker War.
• That conflict was part of the broader Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s.

The US Navy has spent months battling Houthi missiles and drones threatening warships and civilian vessels alike in a high-tempo operating environment that has been described as the most intense combat the sea service has seen in nearly eight decades.