‘Devastated by Tragedy,’ They Recall Son’s Career : Skipper’s Parents: ‘He’s Done His Job’

SAN ANTONIO —  For days now, the news has only gotten worse for Will and Vonnabeth Rogers.

On Sunday came first word of a sea battle between an American ship and Iranian gunboats. Then, in quick succession, came reports that the ship was the cruiser Vincennes, which their son, Capt. Will C. Rogers III, commands.

Next was the first mention of an Iranian claim that the Vincennes had shot down a passenger jet with 290 people aboard.

The Rogers turned on a second television set then. Each kept a wary eye on the screen, hoping the report was false, that it was some sort of Iranian propaganda ploy.

But it wasn’t. Soon enough there were grisly images of bodies from the downed airliner being plucked from the Persian Gulf.

And finally, there came the statement of their son, taking full responsibility for the downing of the Iran Air Airbus A-300, saying he took the action in the belief that he was defending his ship and crew.

23-Year Military Career

Now come the weeks of waiting, as the investigators pore over information that could decide the fate of Rogers’ 23-year military career, one that earned him a choice command and a chest full of ribbons.

“Of course we’ve been devastated by this tragedy, but we feel our son did the only thing that could be done for his men and his ship,” said the elder Rogers, sitting in the comfortable den of his well-manicured home. “Who knows what the end will be? He’s done his job, and we’ll see what happens.”

In the den, an oil portrait of Capt. Rogers hangs over the mantle. A photo of him sits on a corner table. The frame’s border has teddy bears on it, something suitable for a child’s picture, rather than a formal portrait of a Navy captain with American flag as background.

“He just found that and thought it would be funny--him so stiff and formal in that kind of frame,” Mrs. Rogers said.

The elder Rogers, a slight man of 76, said he had talked to his son since the incident and that he is “just fine under the circumstances.” He also said his son’s wife, Sharon, had been with them until Monday, when she returned home to San Diego.

Wife’s Composure

“She felt like she needed to be near the Navy,” Mrs. Rogers said. “She is a woman with a great deal of composure.”

Mrs. Rogers brought out a scrapbook that spanned her son’s career and recalled the day he was reassigned from his first command, the destroyer Cushing, in 1984. She remembered that, as the theme from “Chariots of Fire” played in the background, Rogers, in his dress whites, walked down the long line and shook the hand of every crew member. As she talked she began to weep. That golden moment was now clouded.

“Every place he goes is the same,” his father said. “The crew has such respect for him.”

Rogers, a 1962 graduate of Baylor University, earned his master’s degree in history from San Antonio’s Trinity University, then taught high school in San Antonio for a year before entering officer’s candidate school. His family is not related to the famous humorist Will Rogers.

Commissioned in 1965, he was first assigned to the aircraft carrier Independence, where, his father said, “he did just about every job you can do.”

Stint in Pentagon

Rogers spent most of the last 14 years in San Diego. He also did a stint in the Pentagon in the offices of the chief of naval operations before taking over the command of the Vincennes.

The elder Rogers said he talked often to his son, but they never discussed the Persian Gulf situation.

“He was more concerned about the ones he was leaving at home,” said Rogers. “It was just part of his job.”

Mrs. Rogers talked of her son’s sense of humor, of his love for cars and of her grandson, Will IV, who goes to Baylor like his father and grandfather did before him.

And then she focused on the investigation and the long wait for its findings. But she already had her answer in her son’s public statement--that he believed he was defending his ship and men.

“I think that message is very revealing,” she said. “I think he spoke the truth.”