USS Liberty Memorial

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel - Chip, just for those that do not know, can you fill in the basic story for us?

The US Saw the Escalation and posturing between Israel and it's neighbors, It sent USS Liberty to do what we do Watch and Listen. She Posted in International Waters off Palestine. She was passed over several times by the Israelis with nothing happening. Then out of the Blue Strafing runs began, The Planes were joined by fast patrol craft that started shooting and Torpedoed her twice. After there wasn't a square yard that didn't have a whole in it. The ship was approached by her attackers offering a branch of peace saying that it was a Horrible Mistake. The Official Excuse to this day is that they had mistaken the Liberty for a Egyptian Troop Transport. I'm Sorry but how many Egyptian Troop Transports have a 60 ft Moonbounce Antenna? No they were getting to make a Giant Land Push and do something really horrible to the Palestinians and didn't want anyone to report what they were doing and had no qualms about attacking one of our ships.

I know they are surrounded by folks that really aren't that thrilled about them and a little excess I can accept but that is not a little "Excess".

Thank you. Now for the real story... America at the time was neutral. She had not thrown her hat in with any of the nations. She wanted to come in on Israel's side. An "event" needed to be planned to facilitate this. Johnson aligned with Israel to launch an air attack on an American ship with the Israeli aircraft pretending to be Egyptian. This wouldn't be a problem as both Israel and Egypt had the same aircraft in their inventories. Issues:

1. Israel had - unfortunately - so completely destroyed the EAF on the ground that having 12 surviving aircraft was not gonna "fly" (pardon the pun) in the UN. And were the EAF to have had 12 surviving aircraft, they sure as crap weren't going to be farting around the water looking for a naval target when their armor and men were having their ass handed to them in the Sinai. However, to complete the ruse, the Israeli's removed all markings from their aircraft.

2. America - for some stupid reason - chose to send a fully manned ship for the Israeli's to bomb. The sailors then did what American sailors are known for the world over - they fought the fire and stopped the flooding and defended the ship. The Israeli's shook their head as they were expecting an empty ship. Or at least a ship with dead bodies on it like - oh I don't know - everyone else would have done.

3. America - for stupid reason number two - completely forgot that Egypt had allies and friends and that they might kinda sorta not get too happy at the world's number two superpower coming in to the area. So friend - Russia - told America that if she came in on Israel's side, Russia would be bound to come in on Egypt **AND** Syria's side. This now put Israel in a four front war meaning Israel would have no choice but to go nuclear.

4. America - for stupid reason number three - underestimated her public bitchslapping of Britain and France during the 1956 Suez War and both Britain and France told America that they too would come in on Egypt's side. Ooops.

Wait a minute - how'd everyone know? Ooops. Well ya see, you need to understand that we were as anti-semetic as the next nation (yes.......really......) and didn't really care/like Israel. So we'd do friendly stuff like break their weapons, sell them duds, etc. So at the start of the war they asked us (to this day we're not sure 100% why) what side we'd consider coming in on. Israel knew that they'd win the six day war but they also knew it would break their bank and deplete their stocks. And as America was in bed deeply with France - the middle East's main weapon supplier - this was going to be an Israeli problem. When America said "we don't know who's side we'll support" they stupidly said it in front of a Soviet official. Next thing ya know, Soviet Naval planners are in Haifa surveying the port to see if it could handle Russian subs! The planners also had a huge blank check. "Hey - we're anti semetic and hate you Jews too, but you give us a sub port and we'll supply you with more weapons than those hate-ass Westerners can give you."

Next thing ya know - **THAT** letter was dropped at the feet of the American ambassador.

Suddenly Johnson the Jew hater becomes Johnson the Jew lover and rather than just sell Israel weapons (which is all they freakin wanted in the first place...) he decided he wanted to commit ground troops. Guess Vietnam wasn't that much fun, eh? He then concocts this great plan to put two MEU's (which America didn't have) on the ground and commit two carrier battle groups (which he did have). Russia at the time is railing at Western naval presence in the Med and is not happy one iota at any NATO stuff there let alone more American stuff. Also, Egypt, Syria and Iraq are Soviet weapon testers and they don't want to replace billions of dollars worth of gear.

Johnson's mental credibility is then questioned as former US Navy armorers tell of nuclear bombs being loaded on the planes assigned to the Liberty "rescue mission." "It was only one..." Yes yes virginia, only one, but ya know... How many do you need? One. Ten. Sixteen. Doesn't matter. Someone took the key out of their pocket and gave permission for two carriers to get the big toys out. Conveniently Johnson dies in a few years right about the time people want to dig and know more. Books like Peter Wrights' "Spycatcher" and Eric Hammels "Six Days In June" will hit the reader with enough declassified info. The US of A will remain silent on the subject and mildly point a scolding finger in Hammel and Wright's directions. In case we (and the crew) didn't get it, the investigation did not want any/limited crew testimony and edited/redacted the testimonies it did get from the crew.