"I think, and I believe deeply, that had there been one American on that aircraft, that the story would have gone on from there. But sadly, in a macabre way, sadly, there wasn't. And so consequently, there wasn't any drive to get to the bottom of the story. And the new investigation, headed by Warren Nelson, simply petered out. Other things seemed more important. The reason why there was no final report is exclusively my fault. We didn't produce any further document, although we wanted to, and I got bogged down with something else that erupted. I forget what it was. The really sad part of this whole thing, in my opinion, is the lack of taking responsibility for what happened. I view the entire affair as a gigantic screw-up. And yet, once we got through the preliminary investigation in Bahrain, conducted by Admiral Fogarty, we hear not a word of it from there on out. Why is that? Well, I find it interesting that we took no further action. It seems to me it was plain that it was a tremendous mistake, a giant blunder. At that point, it would seem to me that we should have addressed it as a giant blunder, held people accountable, taken corrective action, and I believe we should have apologized to the Iranians for it. Captain Rogers declined the BBC's request for an interview. He said that while he regretted the outcome, he would do exactly the same thing again in the same circumstances. Captain Will Rogers was awarded a Legion of Merit Medal for his meritorious performance on the Vincennes. Views of the shoot-down stunned in Iran, already worn out by eight."