Some years ago, I did some reading regarding the downing of Iran Airlines Flight 655, shot down, with the loss of 290 lives, by the USS Vincennes in 1988, a cruiser captained by one Will Rogers III. Rogers, known for his aggressive attitude, deliberately took the Vincennes into Iranian waters, in contravention of his standing orders. Flight 655 was a regularly scheduled flight, and the Vincennes was aware of passenger flights in the area. Nevertheless, due to, well, due to a lot of things, including, one might say, Capt. Rogers’ stunning lack of judgment and general incompetence, the Vincennes shot down a harmless civilian airliner in its regularly scheduled flight path.
Was Capt. Rogers court-martialed? No. The Reagan Administration lied its ass off about the incident and eventually gave the “good” captain a commendation for his service on his dangerous voyage.
I also did some reading about the collision of the Japanese fishing ship Ehime Maru and the U.S. submarine USS Greenville, captained by Commander Scott Waddle. The Greenville crashed into the Ehime Maru while executing some dramatic, “high speed” maneuvers for the delectation of some high-profile civilian guests, and while neglecting some elementary safety precautions. Nine Japanese were killed in the incident. Commander Waddle was forced to retire, but was not court-martialed. Rather, he was given an honorable discharge, entitling him to a pension and all the other perquisites of a retired military officer.
In light of both these incidents, I wondered what would happen to a naval officer who caused the deaths of Americans rather than “foreigners”. Well, after two fatal collisions of U.S. naval warships this summer, and the decision to relieve Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin of his command of the Seventh Fleet, as well as the ordering of a worldwide suspension of all U.S. Navy ship operations around the world, just to find out if our captains know what the hell they’re doing, maybe I’ll find out.
