UI failings aside, a few points, mostly from the US Naval Institute's Proceedings[2] (which has references to the Official Investigation "Fogarty report"[3]) -

UI failings aside, a few points, mostly from the US Naval Institute's Proceedings[2] (which has references to the Official Investigation "Fogarty report"[3]) - it was standard practice to illuminate Iranian military aircraft with missile fire control radar as a warning for them to turn around. "When you put that radar on them, they went home. They were not interested in any missiles," Captain Carlson recalled. - the captain of the Vincennes was known as trigger-happy and the Vincennes was nicknamed the Robo-Cruiser. - the Vincennes was inside Iranian territorial waters at the time of the shoot-down - data from USS Vincennes' tapes, information from USS Sides and reliable intelligence information corroborate the fact that TN 4131 was on a normal commercial air flight plan profile…squawking Mode III 6760, on a continuous ascent in altitude from take-off at Bandar Abbas to shoot down." - "Capt. Rogers was a difficult student. He wasn’t interested in the expertise of the instructors and had the disconcerting habit of violating the Rules of Engagement in the wargames." [2] - Commander Lustig, the air-warfare coordinator, even won the navy's Commendation Medal for "heroic achievement," his "ability to maintain his poise and confidence under fire," enabling him to "quickly and precisely complete the firing procedure. - all hands aboard the Vincennes and the Elmer Montgomery received combat action ribbons." ... [1] https://www.newsweek.com/sea-lies-200118 https://www.newsweek.com/sea-lies-200118 [2] https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1993/august/vincennes-case-study https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1993/august/vince... [3] https://archive.org/details/FormalInvestigationintotheCircumstancesSurroundingtheDowningofIranAirFlight655on3July1988 https://archive.org/details/FormalInvestigationintotheCircum...