The Navy Shot Down a Passenger Jet and Got Medals | Back in the Day

The USS Vincennes shot down a civilian airliner with 290 people aboard — then its crew received military commendations.

On July 3, 1988, Iran Air Flight 655 departed Bandar Abbas Airport on its regular Dubai route with 290 passengers and crew.

Two missiles struck Flight 655 over Iranian airspace. The plane broke apart. All 290 people — including 66 children — fell into the Persian Gulf.

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📅 June 20, 1988
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📖 Full story below. 👇

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THE FULL STORY

The USS Vincennes shot down a civilian airliner with 290 people aboard — then its crew received military commendations. Captain William Rogers III was awarded the Legion of Merit when his tour ended. The shoot-down wasn't mentioned in the citation. This is the story of one of the worst friendly-fire disasters in American naval history, and how the government handled it.

July 1988. The Iran-Iraq War had been grinding on for eight years, and the United States was effectively backing Iraq — patrolling the Persian Gulf to protect oil tankers from Iranian attack. The Gulf was a war zone in all but name. Iranian gunboats had been skirmishing with U.S. warships for months. The Vincennes had already seen combat that very morning, engaged with Iranian speedboats before the airliner appeared on radar.

Iran Air Flight 655 was an Airbus A300 operating a scheduled civilian route from Bandar Abbas to Dubai — the same route, the same time, every single day. It departed at 10:17 a.m. and was transmitting a civilian transponder code — Mode III 6760 — the entire time. It was climbing at a normal commercial rate. It was inside the commercial air corridor. Every technical signal said: this is a passenger plane.

At 10:24 a.m., the Vincennes launched two SM-2 surface-to-air missiles. Captain Rogers had convinced himself — against the data — that the aircraft was an Iranian F-14 descending toward his ship on an attack profile. The first missile struck the Airbus and the plane disintegrated at altitude. All 290 people aboard — 66 of them children — fell into the Persian Gulf. The plane had been in the air for seven minutes.

Iran called it murder. The International Court of Justice opened proceedings. The U.S. initially claimed the Vincennes had been in international waters — this was later acknowledged as false. The crew received Combat Action Ribbons. The air warfare coordinator on duty received a Navy Commendation Medal. In 1996, the U.S. paid Iran $131.8 million in a legal settlement — while never formally acknowledging wrongdoing.

The Fogarty Report — the U.S. military's own investigation — confirmed Flight 655 was on a normal commercial profile, in the right corridor, transmitting civilian codes throughout. It found no evidence of any threatening action by the aircraft. Captain Rogers was never court-martialed. He retired with full honors. The Vincennes was eventually decommissioned in 2005. The 290 people aboard Flight 655 had been flying a routine Tuesday morning commute to Dubai.

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