Sea Of Lies

At 7:22, the Vincennes's SH-60B Seahawk helicopter lifted off and sped north; within 20 minutes it was circling over the Iranian gunboats. The pilot of Ocean Lord 25, Lt. Mark Collier, found the gunboats hovering around a German cargo vessel, the Dhaulagiri. They weren't shooting. It was a common harassment tactic.

In Bahrain as he listened to the radio traffic, Capt. Richard Watkins, Admiral Less's chief of staff, decided that the situation was, as he later put it, "defusing." He left the flag plot to do some paperwork. But aboard the Vincennes, things were just heating up. With a blast of the klaxon, Rogers sent his crew to battle stations and ordered the small-arms stations along the sides of his ship into readiness against small-craft attack.

The Vincennes had a dubious reputation inside the U.S. fleet in the gulf. Officers on other ships sarcastically referred to the ship as "Robocruiser." In deskbound war games in San Diego, just before the Vincennes left for the gulf, Rogers consistently pushed beyond the exercise's rules of engagement, according to another participant. At a Subic Bay, Philippines, briefing on the rules of engagement in the Persian Gulf, the most senior officer attending from the Vincennes was a lieutenant. In early June, Rogers infuriated Capt. Robert Hattan, the commander of the frigate USS Sides, by ordering him to close in on an Iranian warship in a w he deemed provocative. Hattan refused-and fleet headquarters in Bahrain backed him up. By early July, Rogers was widely regarded as "trigger happy," according to several high-ranking officers.

He was unquestionably eager to get at the gunboats trailing after the Montgomery. Onward the Vincennes charged, past the German merchantman (which nonchalantly flashed an "A-OK" signal) until it drew abreast of the Montgomery at 8:38. By now, Oman's coast guard was on the radio, ordering the Revolutionary Guard boats to head home. The Omanis wanted the Vincennes to leave, too. " U.S. Navy warship," an Omani officer intoned over the radio, "maneuvers at speeds up to 30 knots are not in accordance with innocent passage. Please leave Omani waters. "By chance, a navy cameraman named Rudy Pahoyo was aboard the Vincennes that day, shooting videotape on the bridge. His video captures the officers' response to the Omani request. They smirked at each other, and did not bother to reply.

The Omanis weren't the only ones who wanted the Vincennes out of the area. At 8:40, Captain McKenna in Bahrain returned to his command center and was startled to see that Vincennes was off the top of the Omani peninsula-about 40 miles north from where he believed he had ordered Rogers to remain. In some irritation, McKenna called Rogers and asked him what he was doing. Rogers replied that he was supporting his helo, and that he'd been having communications problems. Unimpressed, McKenna told him to head back toward Abu Musa. " You want me to do what?" Rogers bristled. Over the circuit, McKenna could hear chortles of laughter from the Vincennes combat information center. Now angry, McKenna delivered a flat order: the Vincennes must come south -and the Montgomery, too. He was furious at the attitude of the captain and officers of the hotshot billion-dollar cruiser. "Aegis arrogance," he muttered to himself. Rogers grudgingly obeyed the order-but he left his helo behind to watch the Iranian boats. It was to be a fatal mistake.

In the cockpit of Ocean Lord 25, pilot Mark Collier could not resist the temptation to follow the gunboats north, as they retreated toward their island lair. He later explained that he wanted to drop down and see how many men were aboard the launches, and how they were armed. He almost found out the hard way. As he banked around them, Collier saw what he later described as "eight to 10 bursts of light" and "sparks ... just a big spark" in the sky 100 yards from his helo. He thought for a moment it was the sun glinting off a boat, but then he saw puffs of smoke. "Did you see that?" Collier called out to Petty Officer Scott Zilge. "Yeah," Zilge replied. "Let's get out of here. That was an airburst-antiaircraft fire." As Collier dropped the helo to the safety of 100 feet, the aircraft's commander, Lt. Roger Huff, sitting in the copilot's seat, radioed the Vincennes: "Trinity Sword. This is Ocean Lord 25. We're taking fire. Executing evasion."