Bryce Lockwood is an 85-year-old retired U.S. Marine who was aboard the intelligence-gathering ship, the USS Liberty, when it was bombed by Israel in the Mediterranean on June 8, 1967. The attack occurred three days after the start of the Six-Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Lockwood lives in Missouri and recently traveled to Connecticut to speak at an event featuring a representation of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., known as “the Wall.” He also spoke at a Connecticut mosque.
Lockwood was one of three Marine Corps linguists aboard the ship and was seriously burned when a torpedo exploded. He was awarded a Purple Heart and also a Silver Star for rescuing three sailors trapped in flooded ship compartments. Altogether, 34 were killed and 174 wounded.
Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Lockwood about the U.S. government’s cover-up of the incident and his belief that this incident has led to Israel’s actions, steeped in impunity, in the decades since.
BRYCE LOCKWOOD: I was aboard the USS Liberty in 1967 during the Six-Day War between Israel and the United Arab Republic, which at that time included primarily Egypt, Syria, Jordan and to a lesser extent, Libya. War was apparently imminent between Israel and their neighbors. Israel actually attacked their neighbors. We aboard the ship, had an intercept copy of a message ordering the attack on Egyptian forces on the 5th of June, 1967. The USS Liberty was in international waters, approximately 13 and a half miles off the Sinai Peninsula when we were brutally attacked. Approximately 1400 hours, 2 o’clock local time, by Israeli unmarked aircraft—a violation of international law. Our distress frequencies were jammed by the Israelis. That’s a violation of international law. Our life rafts were “napalmed.” What life rafts, life boats, we had were all napalm destroyed. We had three inflatable life rafts left. Israeli motor torpedo boats, machine gunned those life rafts, took one of them away with them.
We were fired upon by the Israelis for the better share of two hours—aircraft, motor torpedo boats. Eight hundred twenty-six large caliber strikes aboard the ship. There were over 3,100 heavy machine gun caliber strikes on the ship. Five torpedoes were fired at us. One struck the ship just forward of the mid-ships. I was in an enclosed area below the waterline when that torpedo struck. I was less than 10 feet from it looking at it when it blew. It killed 25 men all around me. 34 Americans were killed. 174 were wounded. Actually, there were probably more than that, but there were a total of 208 Purple Hearts awarded. Israel claimed it was a case of mistaken identity. They claimed they had mistaken us for an Egyptian ship, the El Quesir, which was a World War I horse transport.
I suppose you could claim Israeli pilots were colorblind. U.S. ships are painted gray with home markings and English lettering. Egyptian ships are painted black with home markings in Arabic script. Hardly possible to mistake the identity. The American flag was flying. There was a short five-day inquiry made by the U.S. government in Rota, Spain that concluded we accepted Israel’s excuse of mistaken identity and the case was closed. The crew members were ordered not to talk about it under a threat of imprisonment and the whole case was covered up. It has never been investigated by the U.S. Congress as is required by Article 1, Section 8, U.S. Constitution.
MELINDA TUHUS: Why didn’t the administration at the time consider this a problem and want to investigate?
BRYCE LOCKWOOD: We think there’s considerable evidence that the attack was planned by our own government. The number two man in the U.S. CIA at the time, a man by the name of James Angleton was also an Israeli Mossad agent. We think we were set up under a pretext of “sink the ship, everyone aboard killed, no witnesses.” Blame it on the Egyptians, get the U.S. involved in war on the side of Israel.
MELINDA TUHUS: Bryce Lockwood. You said that President Johnson quashed any investigation because he said he didn’t want to embarrass an ally, meaning Israel.
Israel realizes as a result of our Congress doing nothing, that they could do anything they wanted and the U.S. government would do nothing. As a result of this incident in 1967, Israel has run roughshod over her neighbors, made numerous attacks. Lebanon. Jordan. Egypt. Just recently in Qatar and we’ve done nothing. Look what’s happened to Gaza. They are completely destroying the Palestinian people in both Gaza and West Bank and we have done nothing.
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