William Chapel Rogers III (December 13, 1938 – June 30, 2025) was an American naval officer and the captain of , a Aegis cruiser. During his command, the ship shot down Iran Air Flight 655 in the Persian Gulf in 1988, killing 290 civilians in a major international incident.

Early life and career before 1988

Rogers was born on December 13, 1938 in Fort Worth, Texas, and was raised in San Antonio, Texas. His father, William C. Rogers II, served as a psychologist in the United States Navy during World War II. Rogers had a younger brother who was paralyzed in an automobile accident and used a wheelchair.

left|thumb|Rogers as commander in 1981

Rogers was commissioned in December 1965, and his first tour of duty was in the engineering department aboard the aircraft carrier . His next assignment was aboard the , a , initially stationed at Long Beach, California and later in Yokosuka, Japan. In December 1969, Rogers reported to , a , where he served as commissioning operations officer. The ship was homeported in Charleston, South Carolina.

Rogers first command was , an , also homeported in Charleston. After attending the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia, he served in Washington, D.C., working with three admirals and was assigned to the Weapons Systems Evaluation Group under the Secretary of Defense. This assignment includes multiple trips to Israel following the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

In 1978, Rogers reported to , a , as commissioning executive officer.

Commanding USS Vincennes

thumb|Large screen displays on , circa 1988

Rogers was the second commanding officer of Vincennes and assumed command April 11, 1987. At the time, Vincennes was one of only five cruisers commissioned that carried the new Aegis combat system, a billion-dollar computerized integrated battle management system and the first such cruiser to join the Pacific fleet. The heart of Aegis is an advanced, automatic detect-and-track, multi-function three-dimensional phased array radar, the AN/SPY-1. Known as "the Shield of the Fleet", the high-powered radar is able to perform search, tracking, and missile guidance functions simultaneously with a track capacity of over 100 targets at more than . Command of an Aegis cruiser was considered to be very prestigious at the time.

Iran Air 655

thumb|Iran Air Flight 655, the downed aircraft involved, pictured a year before the shotdown

On July 3, 1988, the USS Vincennes, under the command of Rogers, shot down Iran Air Flight 655, an Airbus A300, with two radar guided SM-2MR missiles. Iran Air Flight 655, carrying 290 occupants, had been airborne for seven minutes when the missiles hit approximately from the Vincennes. The airliner disintegrated mid-air and fell into the Persian Gulf, about east of Hengham Island (). All 290 onboard, including the 16 crew members, were killed. At the time of the downing, the Vincennes was inside Iranian territorial waters and was engaging in small arms combat with several Iranian surface craft, and the Vincennes received a report that one of its LAMPS III Seahawk helicopters had drawn warning fire during flight operations.

A subsequent US report by Rear Admiral William Fogarty, titled Formal Investigation into the Circumstances Surrounding the Downing of Iran Air Flight 655 on July 3, 1988,

In 2004, Marita Turpin and Niek du Plooy of the Centre for Logistics and Decision Support partially attributed the accident to an expectancy bias introduced by the Aegis Combat System and faulted the design and "unhelpful user interface" as contributing to the errors of judgment.

thumb|left|Rogers speaking at a USS Vincennes welcome home ceremony

Rogers was personally criticized for being overly aggressive by Commander David Carlson, commanding officer of , a second ship that was under the tactical control of Rogers at the time of the incident. Carlson described the downing of the airliner as the "horrifying climax to Capt. Rogers' aggressiveness, first seen four weeks ago". He was referring to incidents on June 2, 1988, when he claimed that Rogers brought Vincennes too close to an Iranian frigate that was searching a bulk carrier, that he launched a helicopter too close to Iranian small boats, and that he fired upon a number of small Iranian military boats instead of directing another, smaller warship to do so. In disagreeing with Rogers' decision – citing the high cost of the cruiser relative to that of the frigates attached to the group – Carlson posited, "Why do you want an AEGIS cruiser out there shooting up boats? It wasn't a smart thing to do."

USS Vincennes, with Rogers remaining in command, completed the remainder of her scheduled deployment to the Pacific and Indian Oceans. During the voyage home on September 22, 1988, Vincennes rescued 26 Vietnamese boat people adrift in the South China Sea. The ship returned to Naval Station San Diego on October 25, 1988.

Rogers remained in command of USS Vincennes until May 27, 1989. In 1990, Captain Rogers was awarded the Legion of Merit decoration "for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service as commanding officer ... from April 1987 to May 1989." The award was given for his service as the Commanding Officer of Vincennes, and the citation made no mention of the downing of Iran Air 655.

Bombing of Rogers' family minivan

Nine months after the downing of Iran Air Flight 655, on the morning of March 10, 1989, Rogers' wife Sharon, teaching at La Jolla Country Day School, escaped uninjured when a pipe bomb exploded and set fire to her minivan as she sat stopped at a red light across the street from the University Towne Center shopping mall in San Diego. The van was registered in the name of Will Rogers III, and many people at the time of the bombing suspected that terrorism was involved.

Five months later, the Associated Press reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had shifted focus away from terrorism towards the possibility of someone with a personal vendetta against Captain Rogers. , the bombing of Rogers' van remained an unsolved case, despite a major investigation involving at some time up to 300 police and FBI agents.

Rogers' next assignment was as commanding officer of the United States Navy Tactical Training Group at Naval Base Point Loma, a group responsible for training officers in handling combat situations.

References

  • Formal Investigation into the Circumstances Surrounding the Downing of Iran Air Flight 655 on July 3, 1988. Official DOD PDF link, without critique
  • Aerial Incident of July 3, 1988 (Islamic Republic of Iran v. United States of America), International Court of Justice

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