Was it appropriate for the Navy patrol boat Sailors to apologize to Iran?

Code of Conduct section V:
When questioned, should I become a prisoner of war, I am required to give name, rank, service number and date of birth. I will evade answering further questions to the utmost of my ability. I will make no oral or written statements disloyal to my country and its allies or harmful to their cause.

You be the judge.
Undoubtedly that Lieutenant will be answering questions on exactly this subject.

They weren't prisoners of war. We're not at war with Iran. They weren't conducting military operations against Iran as ordered by the US government. They fucked up and entered the waters of another country that we have a tense and volatile relationship with. If you think about it, an apology makes sense. If we publicly claim we made a mistake and unlawfully entered their territory with armed military men by accident, why wouldn't we say "sorry, our bad" and get the hell out of there?

Things like this are way, way more complicated than many think. Even within Iran, there are hardliners and military leaders who would like nothing more than to keep them hostage and scuttle the nuke deal. Fortunately, because of our improved diplomatic ties we were able to get the sailors and their boats and equipment back in less than 24 hours. It could have gone much worse, with a much greater negative impact on the security situation.

As for the outrage about the propaganda video, what would anyone expect? But the US lost any moral authority to bit ch about a minor violation of conventions after our disgraceful actions at Abu Ghraib and with our waterboarding. Plus, I'm pretty sure I've seen video on our TV of people getting arrested by our border patrol for illegal entry.

If you don't want a country to put our military on the news, keep them from "misnavigating". If you don't like Cam Newton dancing in the endzone, don't let him score. When you screw up and hand the enemy a propaganda tool on a silver platter, don't be shocked when they use it.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but this whole incident seems a bit odd. Considering how the Sailors were following SOPs, and had two PT boats, then how could both have broken down and drifted into Iranian waters? Also, the Navy C&C back on the larger vessels would have been tracking them going off course WAY BEFORE the Iranians would have intercepted. Considering this falls smack in the middle of the Iranian Sanction debacle makes me think it was some sort of PR stunt by our administration (along with Iran) to paint us as aggressors and Iran as soft-handed even during such a "massive" transgression. I'm sure it will be like the Benghazi incident, and we will never know the truth from the mouths of our own politicians.