The USS Liberty
A perspective from one of the rescuers. I was a crewmember of the USS Davis
(DD-937) from August 1966 to July 1967. My rate was RM3. My name is Gerald
R. Surette. When the ship departed for a Med cruise, the crewmen of the
Davis had no idea what was going to happen to one of our ships later on.
This is how I remember what happened. We had entered the Med and enjoyed a
liberty in Gibraltar after crossing the Atlantic with the USS Saratoga
(CVA-60) and her group. We fully expected to hit all the liberty ports that
the Med had to offer, but this was not to be. We were instead told to stay at
sea and operate with the Sixth Fleet as the Middle East was heating up.
The USS Davis was operating off of Crete with the Sixth Fleet when the
first call came in from ROCKSTAR that she was hit and needed assistance.
The date was June 8, 1967. ROCKSTAR was the call sign for the USS
Liberty (AGTR-5). At this time, we were the Flagship for COMDESRON
12. One of our Radarmen, John Williams heard the first call and alerted the
Captain of the Davis and the Commodore of COMDESRON 12. According to
John, the Commodore and Captain Leahy, in a smoking jacket, ran up to the radar
room and alerted the rest of the ship. About this time, the Flash
Emergency message came over the teletype from the Saratoga on the
circuit for fleet communications. I received it; and then ran it up to the
bridge. By this time, all hell was breaking loose with the Sixth Fleet. Planes
were being launched from one of the carriers, and there were flashing lights
everywhere.
The whole fleet was coming together in battle formation. We got called back
to the center of the fleet with the USS Massey, and the Commodore was
sent over to the USS America in a whaleboat. When he got back to the
Davis, we got our orders. The Davis and the Massey were to
proceed to the USS Liberty's position and try to protect and help the
ship. At that time, she was off the Sinai Peninsula. We were off Crete, about
300 hundred miles away. The Davis, with the Massey proceeded at
top speed to the last reported position of the Liberty; from what we
heard on the radio, we didn't know if she was going to be afloat, when we got to
her position.
The night was spent checking gear, and getting ready for whatever faced us.
We all knew that we were going into a war zone, and we were going to help a ship
that was attacked and torpedoed. We knew men had been killed, and the USS
Davis was more than ready for anything that came her way. The Davis
and the Massey were to go to General Quarters about 5 A.M. on the morning
of June 9, 1967. Every one of the men on those ships was at his battle station
well before that. My duty station that day was to be in the whaleboat with a
PRC10 radio strapped to my back. The whole crew of that whaleboat was ready an
hour before we were to go into the water, and the engines were warmed up
already. When we got to the Liberty, we were trucking. Our listed speed
was 36 knots or better. We were going a lot faster than that. All stops had been
pulled out, and the battle nozzles were in the boilers. General Quarters had
been called, and we had live rounds up to the guns.
We slowed and circled the Liberty, and most of us on deck saw some
things we had never seen before. That was the most beat up ship I ever saw
afloat. She was listing to starboard and down at the bow. She had a large hole
from the torpedo about amidships or just forward on her starboard side, and
there were holes everywhere in the skin of the ship. The bridge had been worked
over and the gun tubs where filled with holes. There was nothing left of the
lifeboats or the rafts; they were gone. We launched the whaleboat, and went over
to the Liberty. They had set the rope ladder over the hole made by a
torpedo, so it was scary to say the least. The XO went first; and I went second.
I had never made a boarding before and didn't know about the wave action that
got you. I got on the ladder as the wave was almost at the bottom in a trough,
and when I got on the ladder, a wave came along and lifted the boat up and
smacked me in the butt, and dumped me into the bottom of the whale boat right on
the radio. I was going to be damned if I couldn't get on that ship, so when the
lifeboat came up, I grabbed for a rung.
A Radioman from the Liberty met me on deck, and said he'd guide me to
the bridge. The Executive Officer was nowhere in sight. The Radioman took me
through the crew's mess where all the wounded were, and then up some ladders to
a radio shack that had more holes in it than you could imagine. He finally led
me to the bridge of the ship. The Captain of the Liberty and my XO were
talking and discussing what the Liberty needed. Shortly, I was called
over and the XO wanted Stokes litters. At this time, the Davis came
alongside and tied up to the Liberty. Many of the crew from the
Davis went over that day. The Engineering crew went over and helped Mr.
Golden and Chief Brooks repair the engine room, and a Damage Control party went
over and assisted the Damage Control party of the Liberty to stabilize
the ship. The Doctors and Corpsmen were in the crew's mess, where the emergency
first aid station had been set up, and were working on the men who were wounded.
There were many Doctors and corpsmen from ships in the Sixth Fleet. We had
several Doctors aboard that were attached to the USS America, who went
over and helped the Liberty's Doctor. To say the least, the corpsmen and
the Liberty's Doctor and the other Doctors from other ships did one hell
of a job that day. The wounded were laid out all over the mess decks. They were
on every table that was available, they were on the floor, and all over the
ship; and the walking wounded were trying to get their ship to run.
I have never seen, before or since, such carnage as I saw that day. All
because someone didn't want the USS Liberty to be there, and because
Johnson and MacNamara didn't want to embarrass Israel. Planes where launched to
cover the USS Liberty. Then, the President of the United States and the
Secretary of Defense recalled them. I WATCHED THEM GO AND COME BACK! I
heard the radio messages. The USS Davis and the tug, Papago
escorted the Liberty from the attack site to Valleta, Malta, where she
was put in dry dock and patched to sail home to Norfolk, Virginia. The trip from
the attack site to Valetta took six days at 4 knots, which was as fast as the
Liberty could go without sinking. During this time, the tug,
Papago and the Destroyer, Davis trailed her to render assistance,
if needed; and to recover anything that would come from the torpedo hole. The
only thing that held her up was the repairs made by the Damage Control parties.
During the journey, divers from the Papago tried to put a net over the
opening that the torpedo had made, in the hopes that they could stop anything
coming out of the torpedo hole. We stopped in mid ocean and the net was
attached, but that exercise failed miserably as the net lasted about 10 seconds
after the Liberty got moving again.
We escorted the Liberty to Valleta, and then had a few days liberty.
We then left Valleta and started cruising around the Med. I got off in July and
got discharged after sailing a 'PEACETIME CRUISE'. The Davis went
on to a distinguished career, and was decommissioned in 1982 and was sent to
Quincy, Massachuetts for scrapping in the early 90's.
June 19, 1999
Former RM3
USS Davis
(DD-937)