WASHINGTON -- Survivors of Israel's attack on a U.S. spyship during the 1967 Middle East war are gathered for their first reunion in 15 years, still angry over an inability to resolve the Navy's failure to come to their aid.
Though the U.S. government closed the case in 1980 as a tragic accident, time has not healed the emotional wounds of many of the survivors of the torpedo and rocket attack that killed 34 men and wounded 171 others.
Israel said it thought the ship was Egyptian and apologized. It paid $6.7 million in compensation to the wounded and the families of those killed. It paid $6 million for the loss of the USS Liberty, which was scrapped.
'From my perspective and from what I saw, I believe it was a deliberate attack,' said James Ennes, a Liberty deck officer. 'I don't know what the Israeli reason was. There was no question that they knew who we were.'
'I'm frustrated that the truth hasn't been told,' Ennes told a news conference Thursday, as a three-day reunion of survivors and their families got under way.
The Liberty, carrying 294 men and bristling with radio antennas, was ordered to a position in international waters off the northern Sinai coast before the outbreak of war June 5, 1967, to eavesdrop on Israel and Egypt.
Steaming alone and armed with only four 50 caliber machineguns, its cover operation was to evacuate Americans in both countries.
On June 8, French-built Israeli Mirage IIIC fighter-bombers swept over the ship at 200 feet, firing rockets and dropping napalm meant for use against Egyptian forces in the Sinai desert. An Israeli submarine fired five torpedos. One hit.
Promised air support from two U.S. 6th Fleet aircraft carriers steaming 400 miles to the north never arrived.
'There is a tremendous amount of anger at the 6th Fleet,' said Donald Blalock, 39, of Savage, Md. He was a civilian communications specialist aboard the Liberty and sustained burns and shrapnel wounds. 'We were supposed to have air cover.'
A Navy court of inquiry that investigated the incident said planes were launched from the aircraft carrier America, but were recalled after Israel acknowledged the attack and termed it an accident.
Ennes said the court of inquiry found the Israelis could not identify the ship because the American flag hung limply from its staff 'on a windless day.' He said, however, he recorded a wind of 12 knots over the deck that day.
One theory put forward to explain the assault was to prevent the Americans from learning of Israeli plans to attack the Syrian Golan Heights.
Blalock said he expected 60 to 70 of the 260 survivors and their families to attend the three-day reunion, which will run through Sunday and has been in the planning stages for a year. It is the first held by the Liberty crewmen.
'We never had a chance to ask, 'Where were you when this happened?' or to talk to each other,' he said.
