What the heck happend durring Exersize Cobra Gold 82?

[TLAM Strike]

I came across this researching Charles F. Adams class destroyers (I'm building a 1/700 scale model of one)...

June 20, 1982 - Destroyers USS Lynde McCormick (DDG 8), USS Turner Joy (DD 951) and the cruiser USS Sterett were fired upon by machine guns from an unidentified vessel after returning from the U.S.-Thai exercise Cobra Gold, '82. The USS Lynde McCormick DDG-8 returned fire and the foreign vessel fled without further action.

The incident mentioned was off the coast of Vietnam at approx 2am. The Turner Joy was actually hit by a 30cal round in the ward room. the only casualty was the wardroom stereo of the USS Turner Joy. The USS Lynde McCormick did return fire with a deck mounted 50Cal and I believe the USS Sterett lobbed a couple of illumination rounds.

http://www.usslyndemccormick.com/His...story_1982.htm

Yes that is the Turner Joy of Gulf of Tonkin fame, and yes that is the USS Sterett of the Battle of Dong Hoi.

Wikipedia says this in its entry for the USS Benjamin Stoddert:

Leaving the Philippines on 2 June, the guided-missile destroyer sailed to Sattahip, Thailand, anchoring there on the 6th. That same day, tension between the Soviet Union and the West increased after Israel invaded Lebanon. International friction notwithstanding, the warship joined the previously scheduled exercise "Cobra Gold 82" in the Gulf of Thailand on the 7th. Her participation included naval gunfire support for an amphibious landing exercise and ASW operations with three Royal Thai Navy warships. Still, heightened Cold War tension intruded when, just before midnight on 8 June, Aneroid ***8212; a Soviet intelligence gathering trawler ***8212; fired an illumination flare over Thai ship HTMS Khirirat.


Departing Pattaya, Thailand, on 19 June, Benjamin Stoddert, guided-missile cruiser Sterett (CG-31), and two other destroyers passed into the South China Sea on their way to Subic Bay. The next evening, Soviet aircraft ***8212; presumably from bases in Vietnam ***8212; began shadowing the American warships. At around 22:00, a Soviet aircraft dropped 16 flares over Turner Joy (DD-951). A few minutes later, Lynde McCormick (DDG-8) received .30-caliber machinegun fire from an unidentified ship in the vicinity. The warship responded in kind, deliberately aiming high; and the foreign ship ceased fire. Although tension remained high the rest of the night, no other incidents occurred; and the warships arrived at Subic Bay on 23 June. After that, however, Stoddert passed her remaining five weeks in the western Pacific without incident; and, following two "war-at-sea" exercises in the waters off Japan, she steamed for home on 6 August.

Question... did a Soviet trawler or other craft (perhaps a Chinese or Vietnamese gunboat) take a shot at an American cruiser/destroyer group in the middle of a international crisis? Was this a second Gulf of Tonkin that went unnoticed? Did someone on the Red Side get a weapons free order by mistake? Did a couple of sailors get drunk while manning the .30 cal on one of the ships in the exercise?