USS Vincennes Case Study

Every event in the course of history is filled with clearly defined turning points upon which rests the outcome of the situation. Often times, these critical decision points do not seem extraordinary or even important when they are made, and would merely be recorded in the footnotes of history had their fuller implications been left unrealized. When such events happen that result in needless loss of life, the first questions to come to the minds of onlookers are: How could this have happened? Who is responsible? What when wrong in the series of events? What steps are needed to remedy the situation for the future? Ultimately, these people are asking: How did these critical decision points come to be ‘critical,' and why was the eventual decision chosen over other options?

For the United States Navy, this question should, and has, been asked of several critical decision points that took place on 3 July 1988. On this date, the summation of critical decisions resulted in the downing of an Iranian commercial airbus, needlessly killing all 290 civilians aboard. In particular, the decisions made by Captain Rogers of the USS Vincennes, Lieutenant Collier of the USS Vincennes, then-Commander Carlson of the USS Sides, and Rear Admiral Less of Joint Task Force Middle East (Bahrain High Command) allowed the events of 3 July 1988 to escalate beyond the capabilities of these individuals. By analyzing and investigating these critical decision points, future critical decisions can be chosen by US naval commanders to limit the loss of life.

On the morning of 3 July 1988, shortly after sunrise, the USS Vincennes moved itself north to investigate "sounds of explosions" as reported by the USS Elmer Montgomery. However, this command decision by CAP...

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... not adequately trained on the operation of the system. CDR Carlson should have informed CAPT Rogers that were serious concerns on the USS Sides that the plane was in fact a civilian airliner, instead of silently musing and holding on to that information himself. This breakdown in communication, the crew's inability to operate the system, and the combat tension that the crew was already maintaining, spelled doom for the Iranian Airbus.

It is impossible to predict what could have happened had all the right decisions been made by those in charge. It is most likely that a similar situation could have happened the next day, in slightly different circumstances, but with the same ultimate effect. The lesson to be learned are that leaders need to be able to make effective decisions that play to the security concerns and also the reasonability concerns of everyone involved.