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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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time
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091189
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09118900.041
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1990-09-17
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NATION, Page 31American NotesTHE NAVYRebuke for the "Robo Cruiser"
Fourteen months after the U.S.S. Vincennes mistakenly shot down
an Iranian passenger airliner over the Persian Gulf, killing all
290 people on board, Captain Will Rogers III and his crew last week
came in for criticism from the commander of a vessel that was part
of the same task force. In the September issue of the U.S. Naval
Institute's Proceedings, Commander David Carlson asserts that the
Vincennes had been run in a "consistently aggressive" manner and
that this contributed to the decision to fire on the jet, which
crew members mistook for an F-14 fighter.
Carlson, who was 20 nautical miles away, aboard the frigate
Sides, says his crew had correctly identified the Airbus as
nonthreatening. But the Vincennes crew, he speculates, "hankered
for an opportunity to show their stuff," particularly their
sophisticated Aegis antiaircraft system. "An atmosphere of
restraint was not her strong suit," he dryly notes, adding that
Navy wags had earlier dubbed the Vincennes "Robo Cruiser."