Уильям Роджерс III: Капитан «Винсенса» и трагедия рейса 655.

United States Navy Captain

William Chapel Rogers III (born December 13, 1938) is a former officer in the United States Navy, most notable as the captain of Vincennes, a Aegis cruiser. While under his command, the ship shot down Iran Air Flight 655 in the Persian Gulf, killing 290 civilians and creating an international incident.

Rogers was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and grew up in San Antonio, Texas. His father, William C. Rogers II, was a United States Navy psychologist during World War II. He has a younger brother named Dick, who was paralyzed in an automobile accident, leaving him in a wheelchair. Rogers was commissioned December 1965 and his first tour of duty was in the engineering department aboard the aircraft carrier, Independence. His next duty station was George K. MacKenzie, a , stationed at Long Beach then later at Yokosuka, Japan. In December 1969, Rogers reported to Vreeland, a to be the commissioning operations officer homeported in Charleston, South Carolina. Rogers first command was Exploit, an also homeported in Charleston. After attending Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia Rogers worked with three admirals in Washington, D. C., and was assigned to the Weapons Systems Evaluation Group under the Secretary of Defense. This duty involved a series of trips to Israel in the wake of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. In 1978, Rogers reported to David R. Ray a to be the commissioning executive officer, second in command.

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.

Nine months after the downing of Iran Air Flight 655, on the morning of March 10, 1989, Rogers' wife Sharon 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. As of 2003, the bombing of Rogers' van remained an unsolved case, despite a major investigation involving at some time up to 300 police and FBI agents. On February 17, 1993, the case was featured on the TV show Unsolved Mysteries, but no additional information was uncovered.

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. After being passed over for promotion to flag rank, he retired from the United States Navy in August 1991. In 1992, Rogers and his wife Sharon co wrote a book, Storm Center: A Personal Account of Tragedy & Terrorism which describes the events surrounding the downing of Iran Air 655 and the minivan bombing from their personal perspectives.