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USS Liberty

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For other ships with the same name, see List of ships named USS Liberty.

USS Liberty sailing in the Chesapeake Bay on 29 July 1967
History
United States
NameSS Simmons Victory
NamesakeSimmons College in Boston
OwnerWar Shipping Administration
OperatorCoastwise - Pacific Far East Line (during WWII only)
BuilderOregon Shipbuilding Corp.
Laid down23 February 1945
Launched6 April 1945
Completed4 May 1945
Renamed8 June 1963
IdentificationCall sign: AGTR-5
FateTransferred to US Navy in 1963
United States
NameUSS Liberty
NamesakeLocalities named "Liberty" in ten US states
Acquired25 March 1963
Commissioned30 December 1964
Decommissioned1 June 1968
Out of serviceJune 1967
Stricken1 June 1970
HomeportNorfolk, Virginia
FateDamaged beyond economical repair by Israeli attack in June 1967; sold for scrap in 1973
Badge
General characteristics
Displacement7725 tons (light displacement)
Length139 m (456 ft)
Beam18.9 m (62 ft)
Draft7 m (23 ft)
PropulsionWestinghouse steam turbines, single shaft, 8500 horsepower (6.3 MW)
Speed17.5 knots (32.4 km/h) maximum sustained, 21 knots emergency
Range12,500 nmi (23,200 km; 14,400 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement
  • 62 Merchant Marine and 28 US Naval Armed Guards as Victory ship[citation needed]
  • 358 officers and enlisted for USS Liberty
Armament

USS Liberty (AGTR-5) was a Belmont-class technical research ship (i.e. an electronic spying ship) that was attacked by Israel Defense Forces during the 1967 Six-Day War. She was originally built and served in World War II as a VC2-S-AP3 type Victory cargo ship named SS Simmons Victory. Her keel was laid down on 23 February 1945 at Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation of Portland, Oregon.

In 1967, Israeli air force and naval units attacked the research ship during the Six-Day War. Israel later apologized for the attack, stating it had mistaken Liberty for an Egyptian ship, although the reason for the attack has been disputed.[1] Liberty would eventually be decommissioned some time after the attack and was sold for scrapping in 1973 as she had been damaged beyond feasible repair.

Service history

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Construction

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Her keel was laid down on 23 February 1945, under a Maritime Commission contract at Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation of Portland, Oregon.[2] She entered service as a VC2-S-AP3 type Victory cargo ship named SS Simmons Victory.[2][3]

Early years

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The ship was delivered to the War Shipping Administration on 4 May 1945.[2] The next day, she was transferred to the "Coastwise -Pacific Far East Line" and designated as a "Fleet Issue Ship".[2] Her complement included a 17-man Navy Armed Guard detachment to operate the ship's gun battery; a three- or four-man communication liaison detachment; and 16 Navy enlisted people serving as "winchmen and hatchmen".[2]

SS Simmons Victory was tasked with delivering ammunition, which was loaded at the San Francisco-Suisun Bay area navy munitions depot at Port Chicago for Operation Downfall, the planned invasion of Japan.[4] According to Harry Morgan, who served as an engineer on the ship, the Simmons Victory arrived in the Philippines about six weeks before V-E Day on 8 May 1945.[4][a] She made one trip north in support of Operation Downfall and returned to the Philippines.[4][b] She was in Leyte Gulf when Japan surrendered on 15 August 1945.[4]

Simmons Victory departed Leyte Gulf on 6 October 1945, en route to the US West Coast via Eniwetok, and dumped ammunition at sea two days later.[2][c] She arrived in San Francisco on 3 November 1945 and departed for the US east coast on 9 December 1945, reaching New York on Christmas Day, 1945.[2][d] Her 5-inch, 3-inch, and 20-mm guns were removed there on 9 January 1946.[2]

From December 1946 until 1963, the ship moved back and forth several times from commercial charters as a break bulk cargo carrier to stints in the National Defense Reserve Fleet (being twice berthed in the Hudson River).[2] Most notably during this time, she made nine trips to the Far East between November 1950 and December 1952 during the Korean War "to equip American troops fighting communist North Korea" in the Military Sea Transportation Service.[2][5][6][7] On 11 June 1958, Simmons Victory once again entered the National Defense Reserve Fleet, being berthed this time at Olympia, Washington, where she remained until 1963.[2]

US Navy years

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International radio call sign of
USS Liberty (AGTR-5)[8]
November India Romeo Yankee

In February 1963, the U.S. Navy acquired Simmons Victory and converted her to a "Miscellaneous Auxiliary" ship at Willamette Iron and Steel of Portland. On 8 June, the vessel was renamed USS Liberty and given the hull classification symbol AG-168. On 1 April 1964, she was reclassified a Technical Research Ship, and given the radio call sign AGTR-5.[2] She was commissioned at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, in December 1964.

In February 1965, Liberty steamed from the West Coast to Norfolk, Virginia, where she was further outfitted (cost: US$20 million) to suit her for a mission of supporting the National Security Agency by collecting and processing foreign communications and other electronic emissions of possible national defense interests. In June, Liberty began her first deployment, to waters off the west coast of Africa. She carried out several more operations during the next two years, and went to the Mediterranean Sea in 1967. During the Six-Day War between Israel and several Arab nations, she was sent to collect electronic intelligence in the eastern Mediterranean.

Israeli attack

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Main article: USS Liberty incident
USS Liberty being assisted by Sixth Fleet SH-3 after being attacked by Israeli forces on 8 June 1967

On the afternoon of 8 June 1967, while in international waters off the northern coast of the Sinai Peninsula, Liberty was attacked and damaged by aircraft of the Israeli Air Force and motor torpedo boats of the Israeli Navy. Due to suspected Israeli military activity in the Gulf of Aqaba, an Egyptian naval blockade on May 23, 1967 was enforced, prompting an armed response from the Israeli military resulting in the start of the Six Day War[9]. At the outset of the Six Day War on June 5, the USS Liberty was sent to intercept Egyptian military communications[9]. Three days into the Six Day War an Israeli pilot returning from conducting strikes in Egypt reported to his controller that an unidentified ship 20 miles off the coast of the Sinai Peninsula had fired at him. According to a declassified CIA intelligence memorandum published five days after the attack: at 9:50 A.M. the Liberty was flown over by what was identified as single engine fighter jets, presumably Israeli Mirages[10]. According to firsthand accounts from USS Liberty crewmembers, there were at least four instances of jet flyovers the morning before the ship was attacked[11]. According to a declassified presidential report by Clark Clifford for the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, at least one element of the Israeli Air Force knew of the location and American identity of the ship. Additionally, Israeli accounts state an American ship marker was placed on a plotting board by Israeli Navy command[12]. Commander Avraham Lunz later testified that at 10:55 Israeli Air Force elements from Tel Aviv informed him of an American audio surveillance ship named The Liberty off the Sinai coast[9]. In 1967 Israeli military operating procedure instructed that any ships moving in theater above 20 knots were to be considered hostile with no further identification carried out[9]. The USS liberty was clocked in at 28 knots although the ship's max speed was 18 knots[9]. USS Liberty crewmembers attest to the American flag being flown on the ship continuously throughout the day and even replaced with the holiday colors, a bigger sized flag, during the attack[11]. The USS Liberty had English print on it as opposed to Arabic script which would have constituted an Egyptian Naval vessel. The attack on the USS Liberty followed that afternoon at approximately 3:05 P.M. which began with strafing runs conducted by Israeli jets[10]. According to USS Liberty survivor Phil Tourney and corroborated by Assistant Historian of the USS Liberty Veterans' association, Jim Miller, napalm was dropped from the aircraft onto the deck of the ship[11]. All Antennas on the ship were destroyed during the air attack, leaving the vessel temporarily with no communications[11]. 25 minutes later, after the aerial attack was called off by the Israeli Air Force, three Israeli torpedo boats approached the ship and engaged the USS Liberty for another hour and a half. Norman Polmar, in his account of the attack, says the word regarding the ship's American identity was not passed to the commander of the torpedo boats in pursuit of the Liberty[9]. Additionally, he states Commander Oren of the torpedo boats sought to fire torpedoes at the ship rather than overtake it in speed to identify it. The torpedo boats fired five torpedoes total at the USS Liberty, one of which hit the ship and the others missing. The survivors of the attack claim to have identified the star of David on the Torpedo boats as they closed in with the Liberty[11]. It is worthwhile to note that the USS Liberty possessed four .50 caliber mounted machine guns as its sole armaments, and Israeli sources say at least one of the guns began firing at them after the aircraft attack, although the guns would have done little in damage to the Israeli motor torpedo boats[9]. According to USS Liberty crewmembers life rafts were deployed out into the sea and were shot at by the Israeli ships[11]. At 5:14 P.M. Tel Aviv reported Israeli aircraft attacked a ship suspected to be U.S. and expressed their regret[10]. According to the USS Liberty Veterans Association, Israel notified the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv two hours after the attack that they had attacked the USS Liberty, mistaking the American ship's identity for the Egyptian El Quseir, an old freighter waiting to be decommissioned[13]. The IDF Assistant Army Spokesman Lt Col Michael Bloch, commented the day after the attack in a telegram to the White House confirming the misidentification of the El Quseir for the Liberty. Lt. Col. Bloch stated the USS Liberty was present "in a fighting area" and "was not flying flag when sighted," to the contrary of survivors' claims that the ship was in international waters and flying an American flag during the attack[13]. Skeptics have raised the enduring question of why the Israeli Navy sought to sink an old supply ship rather than board it, but that remains unresolved. 34 American crewmen were killed and 174 wounded.[5]: 2  Though Liberty was severely damaged, with a 39-by-24-foot (11.9 m × 7.3 m) hole amidships and a twisted keel, her crew kept her afloat, and she was able to leave the area under her own power. Later, Israel apologized for the attack, stating it had mistaken Liberty for an Egyptian ship, as the incident occurred during the Six-Day War. In total, Israel gave close to $13 million (about $117 million in 2022) to the U.S. in compensation for the incident. This includes compensation to the families of those killed and wounded, and to cover damage of the ship.[14]

After the attack, she was escorted to Valletta, Malta, by units of the Sixth Fleet and given temporary repairs. After the repairs were completed, Liberty returned to the United States on 27 July 1967. She was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 28 June 1968. She was laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet of Norfolk until December 1970, when she was transferred to the Maritime Administration for disposal. In 1973, she was sold for scrapping to the Boston Metals Company of Baltimore, Maryland. The incident has since become a subject of controversy and debate, with many books written on the topic.[15] Some reports have emerged, most notably originating from Dwight Proctor, U.S. ambassador to Lebanon at the time, of NSA or CIA intelligence reports of intercepts of an Israeli pilot identifying the ship as U.S. and being told to fire on it anyway by a Israeli ground command. While this has been repeated in popular discussion of the USS Liberty there has yet to be seen any documents or transcripts to corroborate this report and Dwight Proctor himself in an interview conducted by A. Jay Cristol does not outright deny his initial claim but alludes heavily to a lack of substantiation[16]. Jim Miller of the USS Liberty Veterans' association refutes Cristol's conclusions and cites documents retained by the U.S. government that remain unattainable to him via the Freedom of Information Act[13]. U.S. foreign service officer Richard B. Baker, editor of the Middle East Journal attests to Miller's accounts as "reflecting the majority view among my former colleagues in the foreign affairs establishment" in regards to the attack on the Liberty being a deliberate one, but backpedals by saying this perspective suffers from an unreasonable portrayal of the Israeli military as infallible[13]. Norman Polmar expresses doubt in the aerial attack on the Liberty being deliberate by citing the lack of sufficient armaments on the initial Israeli aircraft sent to attack the unidentified ship stating the use of napalm indicates a hasty rather than deliberate attack on the ship. Conversely, Polmar details a blatant miscalculation of speed of the Liberty and Commander Oren of the Israeli Navy refusing to identify the ship before firing at it[9]. In Clark Clifford's report on the USS Liberty attack to the President's foreign intelligence advisory board he concludes that while the attack consisted of gross negligence on the part of the Israeli military in which they should be held responsible, there remains to be seen any substantive evidence of a deliberate plot circulated by the highest echelons of the Israeli government to attack the USS Liberty intentionally.

Awards and decorations

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NSA National Cryptologic Memorial. Many of the names are from 8 June 1967.

As a result of the crew's heroic response to the Israeli attack, Liberty is the US Navy's "most highly decorated ship ... for a single action".[17]: 82  For the action with Israeli forces, she was awarded the Combat Action Ribbon (8-9 June 1967) and the Presidential Unit Citation (8 June 1967).[2][8] Although President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Presidential Unit Citation in 1968, it was not formally presented to the crew until June 1991.[18] President George H. W. Bush declined to attend the 1991 White House ceremony, instead merely waving at the crew while passing by.[18]

Commander (later Captain) William McGonagle, Liberty's commanding officer, received the Medal of Honor.[2] Numerous members of the crew were decorated, including 11 members of the crew who were awarded Silver Stars, 20 with Bronze Stars, and over 200 who received Purple Hearts.[19] The unidentified remains of six of Liberty's crew are buried under a single headstone in a mass grave in Arlington National Cemetery.[5]: 1 

Liberty was also awarded the National Defense Service Medal.[8]

See also

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Further reading

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  • Ennes, Jr., James M. (1979). Assault on The Liberty. New York: Random House.

References

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  1. ^ "USS Liberty incident". Britannica.com. 1967.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cressman, Robert J. (29 May 2017). "US Navy History, Liberty III (AGTR-5) 1964-1970". United States Navy. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  3. ^ Colton, Tim (21 November 2009). "Victory Ships". ShipbuildingHistory.com. The Colton Company. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  4. ^ a b c d Gillen, Michael (2015). "Harry A. Morgan: Walnuts and Bauxite for the War". Merchant Marine Survivors of World War II: Oral Histories of Cargo Carrying Under Fire. McFarland & Co. pp. 118, 119, 190.
  5. ^ a b c Scott, James (2009). The Attack on the Liberty: The Untold Story of Israel's Deadly 1967 Assault on a U.S. Spy Ship. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4165-5482-0.
  6. ^ Korean War Educator, Merchant Marine, Accounts of the Korean War
  7. ^ Small United States and United Nations Warships in the Korean War, By Paul M. Edwards
  8. ^ a b c Priolo, Gary P. "Technical Research Ship Index (AGTR)". NavSource Naval History. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h Polmar, Norman, et al. “The Attack on the Uss Liberty.” Spy Ships: One Hundred Years of Intelligence Collection by Ships and Submarines, University of Nebraska Press, 2023, pp. 126–51. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.3790079.14. Accessed 26 Feb. 2025.
  10. ^ a b c Central Intelligence Agency, Directorate of Intelligence. The Israeli Attack on the USS Liberty. CIA.gov, 13 June 1967, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/DOC_0001359216.pdf.
  11. ^ a b c d e f Willink, Jocko, and Phil Tourney. “Jocko Podcast 327: Attack on the USS Liberty.” Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=vDHOAjrGjHWbO_eQ&v=JITBsNMcN8A&feature=youtu.be. Accessed 25 Mar. 2025.
  12. ^ Clifford, Clark. The Clark Clifford Memorandum. PRESIDENT’S FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE ADVISORY BOARD, 18 July 1967, https://alcpress.org/mirrors/gtr5.com/evidence/clifford.htm. SC No. 07445/67.
  13. ^ a b c d Miller, Jim, and Richard B. Parker. “Communications.” Middle East Journal, vol. 57, no. 4, 2003, pp. 707–13. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4329968. Accessed 25 Feb. 2025.
  14. ^ "History Channel: Israel attacks USS Liberty".
  15. ^ "Christian Science Monitor, June 4, 1982". Pqasb.pqarchiver.com. 4 June 1982. Archived from the original on 31 January 2013. Retrieved 23 February 2012.
  16. ^ Dwight, Porter. TRANSCRIPT OF TELEPHONIC INTERVIEW WITH AMBASSADOR DWIGHT J. PORTER. Telephone, 20 Nov. 1991.
  17. ^ Wells, Anthony R. (2017). "The 1960s: The Soviet Navy Challenges the US Sixth Fleet and the Royal Navy". A Tale Of Two Navies: Geopolitics, Technology, and Strategy in the United States Navy and the Royal Navy, 1960-2015. Naval Inst. Pr. ISBN 978-1-6824-7121-0. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  18. ^ a b McAllister, Bill (15 June 1991). "Spy Ship Brought in from the Cold". The Washington Post. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  19. ^ "Awards of the Silver Star for Conspicuous Gallantry in Action aboard the U.S.S. Liberty (June 8, 1967)". Archived from the original on 31 December 2008.

Explanatory notes

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  1. ^ Morgan says the Simmons Victory took on ammunition just two weeks before the disastrous explosion at Port Chicago on 17 July 1944, an event that occurred months before the ship was launched.
  2. ^ According to Morgan, the ship "had been equipped to supply the Sixth Fleet when they made the invasion into Japan." However, the US Sixth Fleet was based in the Mediterranean during World War II. The Sixth Army and the Seventh Fleet were based in the west Pacific area and both were tasked to participate in Operation Downfall.
  3. ^ Morgan says, after the war, the Simmons Victory unloaded its cargo of ammunition in Port Chicago. The official Navy account by Cressman seems to indicate that the cargo was dumped at sea: "With a cargo of ammunition, Simmons Victory cleared Leyte Gulf on 6 October 1945, and as part of the preparation for the disarming the vessel, the armed guard dumped the ammo at sea on 8 October." Possibly, only the ammo on deck for the ship's gun battery was dumped at sea and the ammo carried as cargo was returned to Port Chicago.
  4. ^ Morgan says, after leaving Port Chicago, she took supplies to Baltimore through the Panama Canal.

Sources

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to USS Liberty (AGTR-5).
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