Medal of Honor
McGONAGLE, WILLIAM L.
Rank and
organization: Captain (then Comdr.) U.S. Navy, U.S.S. Liberty
(AGTR-5)
Place and date:
International waters, Eastern Mediterranean, 8-9 June 1967
Entered service at:
Thermal, California
Born: 19 November
1925, Wichita, Kansas
Citation:
For conspicuous
gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond
the call of duty. Sailing in international waters, the Liberty was
attacked without warning by jet fighter aircraft and motor torpedo
boats which inflicted many casualties among the crew and caused
extreme damage to the ship. Although severely wounded during the
first air attack, Capt. McGonagle remained at his battle station
on the badly damaged bridge and, with full knowledge of the
seriousness of his wounds, subordinated his own welfare to the
safety and survival of his command. Steadfastly refusing any
treatment which would take him away from his post, he calmly
continued to exercise firm command of his ship. Despite continuous
exposure to fire, he maneuvered his ship, directed its defense,
supervised the control of flooding and fire, and saw to the care
of the casualties. Capt. McGonagle's extraordinary valor under
these conditions inspired the surviving members of the Liberty's
crew, many of them seriously wounded, to heroic efforts to
overcome the battle damage and keep the ship afloat. Subsequent to
the attack, although in great pain and weak from the loss of
blood, Captain McGonagle remained at his battle station and
continued to command his ship for more than 17 hours. It was only
after rendezvous with a U.S. destroyer that he relinquished
personal control of the Liberty and permitted himself to be
removed from the bridge. Even then, he refused much needed medical
attention until convinced that the seriously wounded among his
crew had been treated. Capt. McGonagle's superb professionalism,
courageous fighting spirit, and valiant leadership saved his ship
and many lives. His actions sustain and enhance the finest
traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.
Obituary
An Ambushed Crew Salutes
Leader of USS Liberty Remembered
Saturday, April 10, 1999
One by one, they approached the grave to leave
a single white rose, then stood ramrod straight, gazed off from the top
of the cemetery's hill and snapped a crisp salute.
Most of them were portly men, graying old sailors
in baseball caps and blue jackets that read "USS Liberty . . . Remember
. . . 8 June 1967." Beneath another tombstone at the bottom of the hill
lay the remains of shipmates who had died that day.
Yesterday, the faithful survivors brought their
long-dead comrades at Arlington National Cemetery the body of their captain
-- a reunion of seamen eternally bound by one of the most bloody and bizarre
peacetime encounters in U.S. naval history.
Captain William L. McGonagle won the Medal
of Honor for valiantly commanding the USS Liberty when the American spy
ship was attacked by Israeli aircraft and torpedo boats in the Mediterranean
during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
Thirty-four U.S. sailors were killed, and 171,
including McGonagle, were wounded, among the crew of 300. Thirteen of the
dead -- including the remains of six in the mass grave at the bottom of
the hill -- were buried at Arlington.
The Israelis later apologized. But Liberty
survivors, and some former U.S. officials, believe the attack was deliberate,
staged to conceal Israel's pending seizure of the Golan Heights, which
occurred shortly thereafter.
McGonagle, who died of lung cancer March 3,
1999 at the age of 73 in his Palm Springs, California, home, held his silence
for years, torn by loyalty to the Navy and love for his crew and his ship.
But even he, in recent years, came to conclude the attack was deliberate.
Yesterday, as six gray horses pulled a black
caisson bearing a gold box of his cremated remains through flurries of
spring blossom petals -- and as four gray Navy F-14 fighters thundered
overhead in tribute -- most talk was of "Captain Bill."
"Captain McGonagle was an honorable man," Richard
J. Brooks, 63, of Moyock, N.C., who was a 32-year-old master chief machinist's
mate in the engine room on the day the Liberty was attacked, said as he
stood near the grave yesterday.
"He was a gentleman, one of the best skippers
the Navy ever had to command a ship, and most of all a dear friend," said
Brooks, who stood wearing a USS Liberty jacket. "I keep my shipmates, my
skipper and my ship in my heart every day."
Ernie Gallo, 54, of Dunn Loring, a baker's
son from North Philadelphia who was a 22-year-old communications technician,
gestured toward McGonagle's grave and then at his buddies: "It started
with him. And these guys kept us alive. I wouldn't be here today if it
wasn't for him and these guys."
James Smith, 52, of Virginia Beach, who was
a damage control worker that day, said: "I spent 25 years in the Navy.
There were two men I'd follow anywhere, and he was one of them."
McGonagle, born a sharecropper's son in Wichita,
was a child of the Dust Bowl, who had joined the Navy to get out of poverty
and the vegetable fields of Southern California. He had risen through the
ranks and had assumed command of the Liberty on April 25, 1966. Originally
a freighter built as a World War II "Victory" ship, the Liberty had been
pulled from retirement and outfitted with millions of dollars of electronic
eavesdropping gear, according to a former ship's officer, James M. Ennes
Jr., who has written a book about the attack.
In December 1964, the Liberty was put to work
as a spy ship. Three years later, with McGonagle now in command, it was
hurried to the eastern Mediterranean, where the Arab-Israeli war had erupted.
Despite the deep concerns of McGonagle and
his crew about their proximity to the war, the ship, armed only with a
few .50-caliber machine guns, began a slow patrol 12 miles off Gaza.
The Liberty, code-named "Rockstar," had been
denied the protection of a destroyer by superiors who said it was "not
a reasonable subject for attack," according to Ennes. But about 2 p.m.,
after being buzzed by Israeli scout planes, the ship suddenly was assailed
by Israeli jets firing rockets and dropping napalm.
Liberty sailors were gunned down as they scrambled
for cover. The machine gun crews were tossed into the air like dolls. Flaming
napalm blanketed parts of the ship. Sailors radioed frantically: "Any station,
this is Rockstar. We are under attack."
Then, after several passes by the jets, the
torpedo boats arrived. After several misses, one struck home, blasting
a 40-foot-wide hole below decks and killing 25 men almost instantly. All
the while, McGonagle, his right leg riddled with shrapnel, maintained command,
hollering orders -- "Right full rudder! All engines flank!" -- assessing
the damage and trying to dodge the torpedoes.
"I saw him on the bridge during the height
of the battle," Ennes recalled in an interview. He "was just running through
the fire and flying shrapnel and rocket parts, and he just ignored them.
He just walked along yelling orders and doing his job."
"He went onto the starboard wing of the bridge
just as a napalm bomb hit," said Ennes, who was not present yesterday.
"I thought he was gone. And he just walked through the flames like a fireman
in an asbestos suit, trying to save his ship."
Yesterday, as people hugged and reminisced,
many said a priceless bond was forged that afternoon aboard the ravaged
old ship.
"Something really wonderful came out of that
attack," said retired petty officer Joseph C. Lentini, now with the EPA
in Washington. "We got a family. I don't know a man in the group that won't
hug you. I don't know a man that wouldn't lay his life down for me. . .
. It works that way with all these characters. . . . That wouldn't have
happened otherwise."
William Loren McGonagle, 73, a retired Navy
captain who received the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for
valor, for his conduct in commanding the ill-fated intelligence ship USS
Liberty in 1967 when Israel unleashed a deadly attack on the vessel, died
March 3, 1999 at his home in Palm Springs, California. He had lung cancer.
In one of the most controversial events in
U.S. military history, the lightly armed Liberty was attacked by Israeli
planes, three torpedo boats and helicopters and was bombed with napalm,
torpedoed and shelled on June 8, 1967, while sailing in international waters
in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
Of the 294 men aboard the Liberty, 34 were
killed and 171, including Captain McGonagle, were wounded. Though the captain
managed to dodge four of five torpedoes, one struck, smashing a 40-foot
hole in the ship's side.
A total of 821 rocket and machine-gun holes
were later counted in Liberty's hull. Captain McGonagle had shrapnel wounds
in his leg.
The attack, which occurred during the Six-Day
War between Israel and Arab states, was blamed by the Israelis on a mistaken
identification. They maintained they thought the Liberty was an Egyptian
ship.
Israel apologized to the United States and
paid more than $12 million in compensation.
The events, shrouded in tragedy and conflict,
have never been resolved. Many of those aboard the Liberty, as well as
many senior U.S. officials, have taken issue with the Israeli version of
events. Some have accused both the U.S. and Israeli governments of concealing
vital information about the incident.
Captain McGonagle, years after the attack,
demanded that the two governments release all details of the attack.
During a 1997 reunion of Liberty survivors
in Washington, the Associated Press quoted him as saying: "I think it's
about time that the state of Israel and the United States government provide
the crew members of the Liberty and the rest of the American people the
facts of what happened, and why . . . the Liberty was attacked 30 years
ago today.
"For many years I have wanted to believe that
the attack on the Liberty was pure error," Captain McGonagle said.
But "it appears to me that it was not a pure
case of mistaken identity. It was, on the other hand, gross incompetence
and aggravated dereliction of duty on the part of many officers and men
of the state of Israel," he said.
In 1967, the USS Liberty (AGTR-5) was a converted
cargo ship technically classed as an "auxiliary general technical research"
ship. It was an electronics intelligence-gathering craft, armed with four
.50-caliber machine guns.
On June 8, the ship was near Sinai, positioned
to monitor electronic traffic taking place over most of the war zone.
At 2 p.m. that day, Israeli forces began an
attack on the Liberty that was to last more than two hours.
First, high-performance jets struck the ship;
then came other jets carrying napalm. The attack was continued by motor-torpedo
boats that fired five torpedoes. Finally, the ship was attacked by helicopters
that machine-gunned the ship's life rafts.
James M. Ennes Jr., a deck officer aboard the
Liberty during the attack, later wrote the best-selling "Assault on the
Liberty" that told of the attack and some reasons he and others thought
the Israelis attacked the ship.
The book and other publications told how the
Liberty had flown a large, brand-new American flag, how it carried Navy
markings, and how in appearance it was unlike any Egyptian ship.
The book and later press reports tell of Israeli
pilots calling to their base to say that the Liberty was obviously a U.S.
ship and being ordered to continue their attack.
Some have speculated that Israel, preparing
to launch an attack on the Golan Heights, did not want Americans monitoring
their military communications.
After the attack, Liberty crewmen were kept
away from reporters, and the incident was minimized. But the ship received
a Presidential Unit Citation.
Members of the crew received a Navy Cross,
several Silver Stars and 205 Purple Hearts (34 posthumously). And in 1968,
Captain McGonagle received the Medal of Honor.
The award citation pointed out that "although
severely wounded during the first air attack, Capt. McGonagle remained
at his battle station on the badly damaged bridge. . . . Steadfastly refusing
any treatment which would take him away from his post, he calmly continued
to exercise firm command of his ship."
The citation goes on to say that "subsequent
to the attack, although in great pain and weak from the loss of blood,
Capt. McGonagle remained at his battle station for more than 17 hours.
It was only after rendezvous with a U.S. destroyer
that he relinquished personal control of the Liberty and permitted himself
to be removed from the bridge. Even then, he refused much-needed medical
attention until convinced that the seriously wounded among his crew had
been treated."
Captain McGonagle, who was born in Wichita,
Kansas, entered the Navy in California. He served in World War II and the
Korean War and received degrees from the University of Southern California
and the University of Idaho.
He served in the Navy nearly 30 years before
retiring after the Liberty incident.
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