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It's important that the Navy maintains self-defense capabilities in the Mideast even against commercial flights. We even gave the commander of USS Vincennes William Rogers III a Legion of Merit decoration for his courageous act of shooting down a commercial plane and killing 290 civilians:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_C._Rogers_III

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legion_of_Merit

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Per the Rogers' wikipedia page:

> Rogers remained in command of USS Vincennes until May 27, 1989.[13] In 1990, Captain Rogers was awarded the Legion of Merit decoration "for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service as commanding officer ... from April 1987 to May 1989." The award was given for his service as the Commanding Officer of Vincennes, and the citation made no mention of the downing of Iran Air 655.[14]

So no, he wasn't given the award for the downing of Iran Air 655.

He received the award after the downing of the plane.

Exactly, and that's not the same thing as receiving the award for the incident.

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