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Published on 6/16/2009

By Tim Callahan

Timcallahan01@aol.com

The men on deck of the USS Liberty waved at a slow moving Israeli plane as it passed 400 feet above their heads on a June morning in 1967.

The 16-foot American flag waved in the breeze along with the men aboard the American spy ship trolling in international waters.

Three hours later, more planes came back and some of those same men were set on fire or ripped to shreds by machine guns as the Israelis unleashed napalm, cannon fire and metal-piercing bullets at the Liberty.

Six-Day War

The Six-Day War between Israel and Egypt savagely spilled over to an American vessel.

Jim Kavanagh, a New Yorker who moved to Pawleys Island a year ago, was below deck.

As soon as the planes began the attack, he said, he started destroying classified documents.

He also had to oversee the destruction of the ship's massive computers, using special hand held grenades that melted the machines.

A half hour later, an Israeli ship attacked and scored a direct hit with a torpedo that blew open a 24-foot by 39-foot hole in the side of the Liberty.

Kavanagh was in the next room over from where the torpedo came to rest. He was hit with shrapnel in the legs. His room started flooding and he and some other sailors made their way out by crawling along pipes on the ceiling.

Sacrificing a few

He passed one man, "Spichter, the mailman," who was barely alive, leaning on a ladder with a large piece of metal sticking out of his stomach. He and a few others gave Spichter mouth to mouth resuscitation, but it was no use.

Kavanagh made it up one level, where he watched in horror as a decision was made to send a few sailors to their deaths in an attempt to save the ship and the rest of the men on board.

"One Marine asked to go back down underwater to try to save who he could before the hatch was shut," Kavanagh said.

"We knew it was suicide, but he insisted. He didn't make it back in time. They shut the hatch."

After the unexpected and unprovoked attack June 8, 1867 was over, 34 Americans were dead and another 171 were injured.

No medical experience

With only one doctor on board, men with no medical experience had to sew each other up.

Injured, Kavanagh did what he could to help others as the crew waited to be rescued.

Kavanagh watched men succumb to their wounds before help arrived.

Kavanagh said he is sure it was a calculated attack.

The Israelis' first air attack took out the ship's antennas so the Americans would have no way to radio for help.

A later strafing and cannon run took out the ship's life rafts.

"It was broad daylight," Kavanagh said. "There is no way the Israelis could mistake us. They were going to sink us and destroy the evidence.

"They thought they could blame it on the Arabs and get away with it."

Message goes out

After searching frantically for a long time, radio men somehow found one communication line still operating and got a message out.

The Israelis, Kavanagh said, intercepted the message and knew they were caught.

The attack was called off and an Israeli helicopter actually offered to help the Americans get medical attention.

He said the helicopter dropped messages on the deck saying "they were sorry, they made a mistake."

Kavanagh said his skipper, Commander William L. McGonagle, limped across the deck and made an obscene gesture toward the helicopter pilot.

Rescued 17 hours later

The skipper and his men miraculously kept a ship with a torpedo and a couple thousand bullet and cannon holes in it afloat. They were rescued by their fellow countrymen 17 hours later.

"We were sharper and luckier than the Israelis thought," Kavanagh said.

McGonagle was given the Congressional Medal of Honor.

"But he was given it in a hangar, away from the press and the public," Kavanagh said. "The President didn't attend."

Author James M. Scott, a former Post and Courier reporter, has written a book about the international incident and he says that the Israeli planes knew without a doubt they were attacking an American ship. (See accompanying story.)

Scott states that the Americans were only spying on Egypt. However, Kavanagh said, "We were spying on everybody. We intercepted everything we could and typed it out."

Scott is attempting to help the men who survived get some closure to lives shattered by a daytime air and sea raid by an ally.

But, Kavanagh said, there won't be a real investigation of the incident by the American government in his lifetime. He is 61.

Author Scott said a perfunctory investigation was conducted after the incident, but it was all a show, with no intent to publish the truth.

Kavanagh, who moved to Pawleys Island 11 months ago from New York, said he is more fortunate than most of the other men as he has not been scarred emotionally from the tragedy.

He said he had some bad dreams a few years after the attack but has lived a good and happy life, including marriage, two children and careers in finance and in teaching. He wishes the same could be said of his shipmates, but some of them are not happy.

"All they want is recognition that they fought like hell and that it was swept under the carpet," Kavanagh said.

"This is not about embarrassing or attacking the Israelis. This is not a slap in the face of Israel. This is a few stupid leaders on both sides who made stupid mistakes. None of the survivors wants to criticize Israel. It was a few leaders. It wasn't the Israeli people.

"Let's get rid of the bad feelings," he said. "Let's put this to bed. Let the poor souls rest."

Kavanagh said his telling the story of the Marine who died trying to save others aboard the Liberty inspired his own son decades later to join the service.

Bill Kavanagh is a second lieutenant in the Marines. He just graduated from the University of Colorado.

"My son told me he 'wanted to lead men like that,'" Kavanagh said.