BUFFALO, N.Y. — With the Memorial Day Weekend we have an unusual story about an attack on a U.S. Navy ship called the USS Liberty.
It happened back in June of 1967 and it is connected to the USS Little Rock which is now a museum ship at the Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Military Park.
Among the many killed on that terrible day were two sailors from Western New York.
As we can now walk the decks these days on a tour of the USS Little Rock, a former Navy cruiser, it may bring us to a point on board near the ship's bridge or command area, where we can look out on the Buffalo River.
Back in June 1967 at apparently nearly the same spot on board, Little Rock's commanding officers and Navy sailors are seen in a photo looking at the heavily damaged USS Liberty at a distance in the Mediterranean Sea..
The Liberty was a unique fleet vessel back then in the tense days of the Cold War as the U.S. and Russia, with their nuclear weapons, were locked in a global standoff.
And the Liberty, armed only with machine guns , was really one of the Navy's spy ships back in 1967. Historian and Museum Collections Director Shane Stephenson of the Naval and Military Park explains it this way. "They had the ability to spy on communications of other countries. Certainly we had great intelligence gathering at that time in the Mediterranean with the Sixth Fleet."
In this particular incident the backdrop was the 1967 Six Day War between Israel and Egypt and other Arab nations which also affected international relations - much like today.
And back then Stephenson says the mission of the USS Liberty was there to watch and listen. "It was filled with crypto techs - cryptologic techs who are able to read encrypted writing and communications. And they were parked off of Israel about 14 to 25 miles and potentially listening to Israeli communications during that pivotal Six Day War in 1967."
But then for some reason, perhaps missed communications and the sometimes tragic confusion called the fog of war, the USS Liberty and her crew of 400 suddenly came under attack on June 8th, 1967. And the attackers came from what was supposed to be a US ally, a friendly nation.
Israeli jet fighters, like one seen in another photo taken on-board , riddled the Liberty with cannon fire as the shells ripped into the decks and hull of the ship. Stephenson says "When you have the jets strafing - they're splintering all of the metal which is shattering. Those were the other individuals that perished were from the strafing of the jets. The metal breaking and shattering and just spraying into the crew."
Then from the sea Israeli torpedo boats attacked. One is visible in another picture as it was speeding by the ship. One torpedo struck the Liberty in its hull with devastating effect below decks..
Stephenson points out "A lot of spaces that would have been down below deck would have been radio communications, radar communications, And that's where the torpedo hit was at one of those spaces. And a very high fatality rate of the 34 came from that one space "
As Stephenson said 34 were killed. That included 31 year old Navy Cryptologic Technician Frederick James Walton of Niagara Falls who was buried in a Lewiston cemetery. Also listed by Arlington Cemetery records was 21 year old Sailor Richard W. Keene, Jr. originally of Batavia who was engaged to be married.
When it was over at least 170 crew members were also wounded.
Records show that Israel then notified the US Embassy that the attack was a mistake.
Israeli government and military leaders said they thought the USS Liberty was actually an Egyptian ship. That is even though some accounts say it was flying the U.S. flag and it had a special designation "AGTR" for "technical research ship" on the hull.
The USS Little Rock ( the big ship now berthed at the Naval park and the flagship of the U.S. Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean in 1967 ) and other Navy ships which were not nearby responded to assist the damaged Liberty.
Small utility boats and helicopters transferred the dead and wounded sailors and brought medical corpsmen and more damage control specialists aboard the Liberty. Stephenson says "They were able to save her and right her pretty quickly and shore her up to be able to get to port to be able to have a full repair." That port was in Malta and other pictures from 1967 show Navy officers and others looking at the damage to the ship.
But the crew of the Little Rock was also at general quarters to be ready at battle stations even as they took some of the sailors with lesser wounds to their ship's sick bay for treatment. Stephenson says it was necessary. in the judgement of fleet commanding officers. "You don't know if Israel is going to attack again or maybe Egypt will now get involved and attack us as well. "
Fortunately there were no further attacks.
Back in Washington, D.C. President Lyndon Johnson accepted Israel's apology. But there are to his day lingering allegations of a government cover-up.
Stephenson says "A lot of information probably isn't coming out especially to placate the families of the victims of the USS Liberty (incident). Eventually Israel did pay reparations. Any inquiry didn't go as far as I think the families would have liked to have seen."
A further search did turn up declassified documents, reports, and recordings regarding the Liberty incident.
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