Liberty

I just finished reading The Attack On The Liberty by James Scott.

The book is a troubling reminder of the deliberate, sustained and unprovoked attack by coordinated air and naval forces of the state of Israel on USS Liberty, AGTR-5, a converted World War II merchant ship of the Victory class. The attack, which occurred in international waters near Egypt June 8, 1967, killed 34 US sailors and wounded 170 others, out of a crew of 300.

For comparison, when an Iraqi pilot under Saddam Hussein fired an Exocet missile at USS  Stark May 17, 1987, 37 sailors died. When Al-qaida conducted a suicide attack against USS Cole October 12, 2000, 17 sailors died.

In the case of Liberty, loss of life could have been much greater except for heroic efforts by all of her surviving sailors, but especially her medical officer, Dr. Richard Kiepfer and her Damage Control Assistant, Ensign John Scott, who managed to keep the ship afloat after devastating damage from an Israeli torpedo.

Israel, which admitted the attack and issued an apology, has never provided a believable account of why the attack occurred.

James Scott, the author, is the son of Ensign John Scott, who kept the ship afloat.