we give medals for killing civilians?
El_Kabong
Posts: 4,141
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655
Iran Air Flight 655 (IR655) was a commercial flight operated by Iran Air that flew from Bandar Abbas, Iran to Dubai. On Sunday July 3, 1988, the aircraft flying IR655 was shot down by the U.S. Navy guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes between Bandar Abbas and Dubai, killing all 290 passengers and crew aboard, including 38 non-Iranians and 66 children.
Medals awarded
The U.S. government issued notes of regret for the loss of human life but never admitted wrongdoing, accepted responsibility, nor apologised for the incident. Officially, it continues to blame Iranian hostile actions for the incident. The men of the Vincennes were all awarded combat-action ribbons. Lustig, the air-warfare co-ordinator, won the navy's Commendation Medal for "heroic achievement," noting his "ability to maintain his poise and confidence under fire" that enabled him to "quickly and precisely complete the firing procedure."[citation needed] The Legion of Merit was presented to Rogers and Lustig on 3 July 1988, according to a 23 April 1990 article in The Washington Post. The citations did not mention the Iran Air flight. It should be noted that the Legion of Merit is often awarded to high-ranking officers upon successful completion of especially difficult duty assignments and/or last tours of duty before retirement.
At a news conference on 1988-08-02, then-Vice President George H. W. Bush declared, "I will never apologize for the United States of America — I don't care what the facts are" in reference to the incident. [10]
Iran Air Flight 655 (IR655) was a commercial flight operated by Iran Air that flew from Bandar Abbas, Iran to Dubai. On Sunday July 3, 1988, the aircraft flying IR655 was shot down by the U.S. Navy guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes between Bandar Abbas and Dubai, killing all 290 passengers and crew aboard, including 38 non-Iranians and 66 children.
Medals awarded
The U.S. government issued notes of regret for the loss of human life but never admitted wrongdoing, accepted responsibility, nor apologised for the incident. Officially, it continues to blame Iranian hostile actions for the incident. The men of the Vincennes were all awarded combat-action ribbons. Lustig, the air-warfare co-ordinator, won the navy's Commendation Medal for "heroic achievement," noting his "ability to maintain his poise and confidence under fire" that enabled him to "quickly and precisely complete the firing procedure."[citation needed] The Legion of Merit was presented to Rogers and Lustig on 3 July 1988, according to a 23 April 1990 article in The Washington Post. The citations did not mention the Iran Air flight. It should be noted that the Legion of Merit is often awarded to high-ranking officers upon successful completion of especially difficult duty assignments and/or last tours of duty before retirement.
At a news conference on 1988-08-02, then-Vice President George H. W. Bush declared, "I will never apologize for the United States of America — I don't care what the facts are" in reference to the incident. [10]
standin above the crowd
he had a voice that was strong and loud and
i swallowed his facade cos i'm so
eager to identify with
someone above the crowd
someone who seemed to feel the same
someone prepared to lead the way
he had a voice that was strong and loud and
i swallowed his facade cos i'm so
eager to identify with
someone above the crowd
someone who seemed to feel the same
someone prepared to lead the way
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
Despicable! Can you imagine if it had been the other way around? America would have invaded Iran and slaughtered hundreds of thousands. But then this is the way of the world right now.
I wonder whether the blowing up of the Pan Am flight over Lockerbie was in fact a retaliation for this deed?
The ship's crew did not efficiently consult commercial airliner schedules because they were not sure to which time zone they referred and the airliner had a 30 minutes late departure.
An Iranian P-3 was in the area a while before the attack, providing a potential (albeit unlikely) explanation for the lack of target acquisition radar interrogation[7]
It was first claimed that Flight 655 deviated from the centre of its air corridor, an unusual occurrence with commercial flights - namely that it was 3.35 NM off the 20 NM-wide corridor at the time of being shot down. It is further claimed that this deviation had it bearing straight at the Vincennes. It is unclear how much of this deviation was true, and how much was claimed to obscure the Vincennes' position within Iranian territorial waters.
It is claimed that a Mode II IFF squawk of 21100 was attributed to the Airbus track, identifying it as an Iranian military aircraft (commercial aircraft respond with Mode III squawks). According to the official military report the flight was in fact using the correct squawk mode. The Vincennes simply either heard it wrong or believed it was a military plane using Mode III 36760 to deceive them. It has since been assumed that the tracking device used to identify IFF squawks was left in the original position of Flight 655 when first sighted (at take-off), confusing the Flight 655 squawk with that of an Iranian F-14 fighter within the area. The Bandar Abbas airport was shared between commercial and military aircraft at that time.
The crew of the Vincennes' Combat Information Center (CIC) confusingly reported the plane as ascending and descending at the same time (there were two "camps"). This seems to have happened because the Airbus' original CIC track, number 4474, had been replaced by the Sides' track, number 4131, when the computer recognised them as one and the same. Shortly thereafter, track 4474 was re-assigned by the system to an American A-6, several hundred miles away, which was following a descending course at the time. Apparently not all the crew in the CIC realized the track number had been switched on them.
This incident took place just over a year after the USS Stark was attacked in the Persian Gulf by an Iraqi Mirage F-1, costing 37 lives.
The psychology and mindset after engaging in a battle with Iranian gunboats[8] might have contributed to the mistakes made. The actual reasons for the Vincennes' engagement with gunboats is not so clear to this date.
Software development expert Steve McConnell claimed:
Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down by the USS Vincennes' Aegis system in 1988, killing 290 people. The error was initially attributed to operator error, but later some experts attributed the incident to the poor design of the Aegis user interface.[9]
Yikes...though nothing beats this one:
"Let me give you a little serious political advice. One single word. Puppies. Worth the points." - GHWB
and????
you seemed to have forgotten to include a point w/ this...
so, the military says it was a mistake, so what!?
does it being a 'mistake' negate that civilians were killed -including 66 kids?? nope. does it being a 'mistake' negate that the ppl were given medals?? nope
so nothing you posted changed anything nor does it take away from the thread title or point...we shot down a passenger plane and killed a lot of innocent ppl...for this the ppl who shot it down received medals for it.
how does 'software issues' change any of that? it doesn't, but hey, it was a nice attempt to spin it, at least
and lastly, this doesn't excuse bush for refusing to apologize...maybe it's just me, but if i killed a couple hundred innocent ppl including 66 kids and it was a mistake, i'd say i was sorry instead of acting like a pompous ass and refusing like daddy bush did
he had a voice that was strong and loud and
i swallowed his facade cos i'm so
eager to identify with
someone above the crowd
someone who seemed to feel the same
someone prepared to lead the way
That scares me.
I dunno dude, But i'm gonna give you a medal for shooting down "jsand" with that post.
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I'm just joking Jsand, don't report me. God bless america.