Storm Center: The USS Vincennes and Iran Air Flight 655: A Personal Account of Tragedy and Terrorism
The tale here is as old as the sea: a sailor at risk, his family at home, constantly worrying. But this husband/wife book then plunges into a technoemotional history of the 1988 downing of an Iranian passenger plane by an AEGIS cruiser. Making disjunctive jumps between the cruiser's metaelectronics and the sailor's all-too- human feelings of duty, remorse, and fear, the authors sail a difficult course. Captain Rogers argues his case: Harassed by gunboats and aircraft, his mindset becomes "Don't take the first shot" but shoot first. His wife's travails are of another world until their family van is bombed. The story exposes the frailty of the man-machine relationship, but the reader must judge the events themselves.- John Yurechko, Georgetown Univ., Washington, D.C.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.