naval forces in international waters thirteen miles off of ellery's and simon thirty four americans were killed one hundred seventy two were wounded the israeli and american governments pronounced the attack as the first mirage pilot radioed oil is going out into the water another added great wonderful she's burning she's burning and ellery's commander reported he's hit or a lot there's an oil slick in the water and then headquarters ask he screwing her the next wave was super mysterious with thousand pound bombs and canisters of jelly gasoline someone in southern command called he's going down low with napalm all the time the fight leader noted it would be a blessing if we could have iron bars otherwise our navy is going to get here into the sink in a pile and interrupted pay attention the ship's markings are charlie tango romeo five there's no flag on her and headquarters doubts about identification these doubts incredibly did not reach the commanding officer who ordered the torpedoes launched that decorated ship in the history of the united states navy eight hundred forty men including medal of honor were skipper of the presidential unit citation ordered through two navy crosses eleven silver stars and two hundred was a warm day sunshine it was shining brightly out nice breeze blowing and i distinctly remember hearing the flag flapping in the wind there was approximately thirteen sorties of our ship from six o'clock till twelve o'clock in the afternoon we had a general quarters drill lasted forty five minutes or so our captain like me being an engineer really believed in watertight integrity and making sure people ship to shore communications and come back and radio central we were taking rounds through the balkans there was up to fifty five gallon drums of gasoline just outside the bulkhead on the one level that it caught fire  strafing run and that was heating that side bulkhead and people in the paint off on the inside there was a lot of smoke in the compartment nursing homes were taken rounds where the problem so that on the first pass they knocked out our end of our ability to call for help the one remaining antenna which i had shut down because it had some problems on the tuner that's probably why it didn't get me up i had  the ship for fire that from it to thirty five pm defense secretary robert mcnamara recalled the twelve navy fighters that had been sent to war defense by the carrier saratoga at that time no one of the war the liberty had identified the taking israelis it was one of only half hours later that our embassy in israel first told washington that israelis had attacked a ship possibly a us navy ship and they did mcnamara know to recall the hel the liberty when the ship came under attack now here in this general quarters this is no drill the ship is under attack by a den of fighter aircraft and they were paying paying this we heard a lot of pinging which were bullets running across the deck and then we  explosions we didn't know what was going on but of course general quarters had sounded so we batten down the hatches and we started doing what we were trained to do we were under attack we could hear the shells hitting the ship the whole ship would rate it was are used for confirmation of the damage that they done these pictures have never been publicly presented the tenderness was sitting on the deck and it was blood coming out of his mouth and his knee was  the ship of the room i just stepped out of kill every man a mind of a mission that was in the stella first class that i mentioned he was on the phone at the time just outside the door and took off the back of his head and broke did many things of minor surgery and i just head so much to do keeping people together keeping their name detached their body there is not one single life where the ones that are treated sailors remember that they were promised sleep you know just thinking about how we had been so captain meyer government israeli government told to shut up no chance to talk to one another and it just ate anchor it really really me on the day of the attack tried to coordinate communications that the israelis had taken out all of our transmitting antennas my our ems not knowing any better during it being an israel our closest ally in the acts of the attack the ship there we are ordered not to granting interviews you know don't discuss this among yourselves referring to the attack don't get it on the beach drink and in the bars and run in your mouth and he says in fact if you go ashore in malta you are move your ships name from your jersey or go ashore in civilian clothes or another light goes off in my mind here's a flag  l in the middle of the grown home sixth fleet telling enlisted men to go ashore in civilian clothes that were not even authorized to possess and he's says you know so that we won't be singled out and be asked questions about it  says don't discuss the attack among yourselves all right your friends back home about it he says in fact when you get back home don't even discuss it with your wife and family and he said quite sternly just forget it ever happened and he says that the repercussions for violating these orders to silence could rip exult in your court martial imprisonment for violating national security or worse heat seeking missiles that took out the tuning section of every transmitting and turn around the ship less than two seconds take it out all our communication capability the attack on the u s s liberty lasted as long as the attack on pearl harbor about two hours you've heard the already just impossible israeli version of the attack on liberty told by their firsthand servers you've heard what actually happened told by the valiant liberty crew here with some of america's greatest heroes and leaders have to say colonel mitchell page was the last remains standing after repulsing a japanese regiment one waddle can now we all know that this was in unprovoked attack i think it was dastardly i think betrayal any friendship that we may have had with that nation and i think that should be exposed to the mtow world now brought out