Veteran’s Day: Part 3 in the series: “It was God that kept us afloat.”
On October 2, 2007, John Crewdson, Chicago Tribune Senior correspondent reported that, “Bryce Lockwood, Marine staff sergeant, Russian-language expert, recipient of the Silver Star for heroism, ordained Baptist minister, is shouting into the phone.
“I’m angry! I’m seething with anger! Forty years, and I’m seething with anger!”
When I spoke with Ol’ Sarge Bryce from his beef cattle farm in Missouri on the phone November 10, 2007 he was not only still seething and shouting, he also broke down and cried as he recalled that day in infamy on June 8, 1967 when the Johnson Administration colluded with the state of Israel in a treasonous cover-up of the attack on the USS LIBERTY, an Intelligence gathering [spy ship] vessel, barely armed with just four .50-calibre machine guns, sailing in international waters, flying the American flag during the Six Day War.
But, it was not until the evening of Sept. 26, 2006, that Ol’ Sarge Bryce publicly opened up after bottling up his experiences of June 8, 1967.
On that night, former CIA analyst for 27 years, Ray McGovern, “gave a talk on Iraq to an overflow crowd of 400 at National Avenue Christian Church in Springfield, Missouri… [regarding the Israel Lobby and its power] over our government and Congress. In sum, in June 1967, after deliberately using fighter-bombers and torpedo boats to attack the USS Liberty for over two hours in an attempt to sink it and kill its entire crew, and then getting the U.S. government, the Navy, and the Congress to cover up what happened, the Israeli government learned that it could-literally-get away with murder.” McGovern faced 400 blank stares and asked how many in the crowd had ever heard of the USS Liberty and three hands went up.
McGovern called on the man closest to him and “ramrod straight he stood:” Sir, Sergeant Bryce Lockwood, United States Marine Corps, retired. I am a member of the USS Liberty crew, Sir; I have not been able to [speak about the attack]. But it has been almost 40 years, and I would like to try this evening, Sir.”[IBID]
Bryce Lockwood, a descendant of Mayflower pilgrims was a Russian linguist and Staff Sergeant Marine on a special mission on the LIBERTY assigned to collect communications intelligence aboard a most easily identifiable ship, for it was 455 feet long and festooned with radio aerials.
Ol’ Sarge Bryce informed me that, “Admiral Tom Moorer, a former Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staffs stated that the LIBERTY was the most identifiable ship in the US Navy. He thought it was the ugliest ship in the Navy, but I thought it was pretty!”
Lockwood choked up frequently as he recalled the events of June 8, 1967 and the post traumatic stress he has endured for forty years, “Ten feet from where I stood that torpedo that may have been made in the USA hit us and twenty five Americans died immediately…
“Before the attack, some sailor had gotten blank teletype paper and made a four by six foot Israeli flag and using a blue felt tipped marker he had drawn the Star of David on it. That torpedo struck only a few feet from it. That torpedo that may have been made in the USA hit a main brace and absorbed the energy. If that torpedo had hit six inches to the left or the right of that brace, the LIBERTY would have split in two!”
This reporter’s fact checker, Ken Halliwell, an expert Technician of Communications, both Electronic and Cryptologic, was honorably discharged in 1974 after serving as a Chief Naval Petty Office. Ken wrote in an email to me on November 11, 2007, “The torpedo did not directly strike the hull on the deck where he was located. It hit the hull on the deck below him and opened a large hole in the hull on his deck, during its explosion. See my research at: http://usslibertyinquiry.googlepages.com/essay4
“Regardless, it doesn’t change the fact that a torpedo hit the ship, and made a large hole in the hull on Bryce’s deck.”
On the phone, Ol’ Sarge Bryce admitted, “My first thought was: I guess this is it God! I am coming home! But at least my kids and Lois will be taken care of. I would never deny that it was God that kept the LIBERTY afloat!
“I could have saved myself, but it was Phil Tourney who saved me and an unconscious man I had been trying to save. It was Phil who opened the scuttle hole to check how badly the ship was hurt and I was on the other side. I had been trying to carry an unconscious man up the ladder and every time I got to the top of the ladder I dropped him. The only light I had was coming through the torpedo hole, a torpedo that may have been made in the USA.
“Nobody can actually prove that torpedo was or wasn’t made in the USA, but my understanding is that America sold WWII surplus torpedoes to Italy and Italy sold those torpedoes to Israel.
“You also need to understand that the sea has natural rolls, and every time the ship rolled water gushed in and out of that torpedo hole, a 36 X 24 foot hole, the size of a small American home!
“I dropped this guy four times trying to get up the ladder; every time I dropped him I could see him being sucked out of that torpedo hole; a torpedo that may have been made in the USA!
“I was so angry, the hatch was sealed shut and I was pounding on it for help. Phil broke regulations for he didn’t have clearance to be there, but he saved our lives. There was so much confusion, I passed out for a while and when I came to I was told I saved the lives of three men, but I only remember two.”
Lockwood wailed and needlessly apologized for crying while he informed me, “Both my Arabic linguists, Sergeant Jack Raper and Corporal Eddie Rehmeyer were killed…After the 25th Reunion of the LIBERTY Vets I was sitting in a truck stop in Cabool, Missouri. I am wearing a LIBERTY t-shirt and this lady comes up to me and asks if I was from Norfolk, where the LIBERTY had been docked. She tells me she had been Gary Blanchard’s fiancée…Gary was sitting in a boatswain’s chair chipping and painting when the jets struck and riddled his kidneys with shrapnel…Dr. Keifer sedated him as he told him, ‘Gary, it doesn’t look good, but if I don’t you won’t'… Gary never woke up.”
I let Lockwood catch his breath and composure for a few minutes before I inquired what he had been told his mission was and if there had been any Hebrew linguists aboard.
He replied that Lt. Commander David Ed Lewis, the officer in charge of 194 men out of the total crew of 294 on the LIBERTY, “Called Raper, Rehmeyer and me together and told us that our mission was to keep track of all the Russian and United Arab Republic’s communications. He said if we picked up any Israeli communications to note it and drop it…I am not saying there weren’t any Hebrew linguists aboard and I certainly was in a position to know about it, but I had no knowledge of any…
“An English reporter, I think his name is Trevor Penick, he worked for Thames Television in London and when he interviewed Moshe Dayan he questioned him about the LIBERTY and American Congress. Dayan said something like, ‘Forget about Congress. We own Congress.’”
www.baltimoresun.com/news/world/chiliberty_tuesoct02,0,6015776.story
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/100507a.html
LEARN MORE:
ussliberty-inquiry.us
http://www.ussliberty.org/
http://hometown.aol.com/kjhalliwell/myhomepage/profile.html
November 12, 2007 at 6:02 pm
Thanks again for posting and once again, I have erred:
CORRECTION received from Ken in an email 11/12/07:
Eileen,
My Navy rating was “Communications Technician”, not “Technician of Communications”. I was NOT a “Chief Petty Office” — I was a Petty Officer First Class.
Here’s a “new and improved” version of what you wrote:
“This reporter’s fact checker, Ken Halliwell, a former US Navy Communications Technician, was honorably discharged in 1974 as a Petty Officer First Class, after serving six years in the Naval Security Group. Ken wrote in an email to me on November 11, 2007, “The torpedo did not directly strike the hull on the deck where he [Lockwood] was located. It hit the hull on the deck below him and opened a large hole in the hull on his deck, during its explosion.
See my research at: http://usslibertyinquiry.googlepages.com/essay4 “
November 12, 2007 at 7:28 pm
The US doesn’t care where our exports (weapons are only export) end up and who they end up killing (even if it is US soldiers). After all, corporations and gov’t are merely quid-pro-quo whorehouses sold to the highest bidder. When the gov’t needs illegal wire-taps, Verizon and Sprint allow them secret rooms to listen in on calls. When Haliburton (and KBR) need more revenue, the gov’t hands out no-bid contracts. When the gov’t dislikes literature, Amazon and Wikipedia ban the book “America Deceived”. We The People had our gov’t sold out from beneath us.
Final link (before Google Books caves to pressure and drops the title):
http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?&isbn=0-595-38523-0
November 12, 2007 at 10:17 pm
wow , I cant believe it , that the torpedos that killed so many US lives and injured so many , are US made . sickening . what is sickening is that the US governemnt hides the true identity of the Killers , and tell the survivors to stay hidden and shut up too.
November 12, 2007 at 10:49 pm
No Hebrew linguists on board? That kills the idea that the Liberty was attacked because of Israeli signals revealing the killings of Egyptian POWs. It was attacked because that was the whole American/Israeli plan, to send the Liberty to be sunk and blamed on Egypt.
When Johnson said that he would not embarrass an ally (Israel), the men on the Liberty still didn’t know who was attacking them because Israel’s French fighters were unmarked (proof of a deliberate attack). But Johnson knew. He ordered all rescue operations ended with the expectation that the ship would be sunk and blamed on Egypt. Johnson’s order to deny rescue planes while referring to “our ally” is the smoking gun. The Liberty guys can’t handle this obvious fact.
(Israel is not and has never been an official ally of the US.)
Even though the air attacks failed, Johnson hoped the three torpedo boats could get it done. Since the Liberty guys still didn’t know who was attacking, the ship could still be sunk and the operation saved. Only a maneuver by McGonagle avoided five of six torpedoes launched, reportedly.
Johnson and his Zionist handlers sent the Liberty with no protection to a hot war zone, fifteen or so miles from the beach, so that Israel could sink it with no risk. Egypt would be invaded and occupied by the US and Israel. James Bamford writes that a B-52 was en route to Cairo with a nuclear bomb but had to be recalled when Johnson realized the ship was not going to sink. Whoever got the SOS out saved millions of Egyptian lives.
This is the big blackmail that Israel holds over the US government – Johnson’s treachery and collusion with the Zionists to create Eretz Yisroel with the cry “Remember who sank the Liberty!” Except it failed.
Few people understand the catastrophic results for Zionism that the failure to sink the Liberty meant. It took decades to prepare another pretext, which finally occurred on 9/11/2001.
The poor guys of the Liberty are in denial about their government’s role in the attempt to drown them all. It took them twenty years to blame Israel and it’ll take another twenty until their children realize it was Johnson and his Zionist handlers who gave the orders to kill them.
November 13, 2007 at 2:07 am
“Don’t worry about American pressure on Israel,
We, the Jewish people, Control America, and the Americans know it.”
October 3, 2001
Israeli PM Ariel Sharon & his foreign Minister Shimon Peres during which Sharon exploded on Peres. The radio said Peres and other cabinet ministers warned Sharon against saying what he said in public, because “it would cause us a PR disaster.
–Israeli Hebrew radio Kol Yisrael
November 13, 2007 at 2:28 am
My Bible says to pray for the Peace of Jerusalem but no where does it say to ever trust Israel or ever turn your back to them! The Crew of the USS Liberty found out the hard way, Go Navy! Shalom. jfele@aol.com
November 13, 2007 at 3:01 am
It is good to see the truth about this most critical and heinous Israeli/US crime and deceit being dealt with in wider and wider forums. This truth is not going away, it’s day has come.
November 13, 2007 at 4:07 am
Zionism must be stopped at all costs. Ron Paul 2008!
November 13, 2007 at 4:20 am
This operation was all done in the finest American tradition. “Remember the Maine” It was a capital battleship moored in Havana harbor. She blew all to hell and resulted in the US starting the Spanish-American war. Even though she was a capital battleship with a compliment of 250 officers, not one single officer was on board when she blew. No officer of the watch, anchor, armory, etc. When she was investigated, there was a hole blown outward from the magazine. We claimed that she was hit by a torpedo.
There is definitely honor in the military but it seems to disappear after a certain grade. There is no honor in politicians.
November 13, 2007 at 4:48 am
We have to look past the trees(US, Israel, Arab, Russia, China, All religions(including atheism and secular humanism and freemasonry), the media(mainstream and some internet), etc) and look at the forest(the elite that know no nations only themselves) instead. As long as we look at the trees they will continue to cram them down our throats and we will never get anywhere.
November 13, 2007 at 6:03 am
Who are the most pernicious race of odious little vermin ever to suffer to crawl upon the face of the earth?
November 13, 2007 at 9:59 am
the U.S.A usually has a tendency to screw up?
http://healthinsurancedepot.wordpress.com/
November 13, 2007 at 11:17 am
Whoa, that’s a surprise…
November 13, 2007 at 11:57 am
“You say you want a revolution….”
Ron Paul 2008
November 13, 2007 at 12:43 pm
When you read this article substitute World Trade Center for USS Liberty. Now you got it.
November 13, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Americans are paying very heavily for her friendship and allies that she choosed. Unfortunately, it was her sons, and children that suffers. The only people gleaming with greed are the politicians and their Masters.
November 13, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Israel might think it can pull this shit on its enemies and/or its supporters, but one fine day, somebody will finally say ‘that’s enough’ and give them their dues. Screw Jerusalem, screw Zionism. If these assholes can’t play nice and fair, maybe they need a lesson. And when that lesson finally comes, I’m going to laugh my ass off until I’m blue in the face. One more thing: American politicians who take the side of Israel should be tarred and feathered on cable tv. Let all of us dirty gentiles enjoy the spectacle!
November 13, 2007 at 3:24 pm
I’m a WWII Veteran, and was discharged from the Service in 1947. I became aware of the Israeli Horror
as a result of their determination to take over the mid-East. Actually, its obvious that they wish to take over the World. I could plainly see that Israel was the driving force of most all of the problems in the World today, but the American people remain asleep to the truth ot the matter
November 13, 2007 at 11:51 pm
These words spoken by a crewman on the USS Liberty that day in June of 1967 tell a story:
“On the phone, Ol’ Sarge Bryce admitted, “My first thought was: I guess this is it God! I am coming home! But at least my kids and Lois will be taken care of. I would never deny that it was God that kept the LIBERTY afloat!”
The USS Liberty did stay afloat and refuse to sink in an act that could only be called a Miracle.
The book “Operation Cyanide” written by Peter Hounam gives an inside look at the curious events that allowed the USS Liberty to contact the outside world even after the Israelis used heat seeking missiles to knock out the transformers on the antennas of the Liberty.
5 of the 6 torpedoes missed altogether and the 1 that did hit struck a non fatal spot that if it had hit 6 inches in either direction it would have broken the back of the USS Liberty?
Another miracle?
The gods that intervened that day spared the human race from a nuclear holocaust. The game had been planned well in advance. Sink the Liberty, and America would have attacked Egypt with nuclear weapons and we would have the beginning of World War Three.
It seems highly probable that the Gods did intervene that day in June of 1967. If they had not we would all have been turned into nuclear waste already.
We are the Living Dead.
November 13, 2007 at 11:59 pm
This event is in even more detail in Alex Jones “TERRORSTORM” video. It shows that throughout history that many times it is state sponsored terrorism that brings about these terrible events. you can download or watch it on Google video. It will make you about how government is at times at least partially responsible.
November 14, 2007 at 1:12 am
something along the lines of “there were no hebrew interpreters on board and I was in a position to know”…..????
being an old fart myself, there have been many times that at unit reunions, someone remembered something, that completely escaped my memory. corrected my reclolection, and I felt better for that action.
that said,
I am NOT saying this is the case with the PO-1st Class, but……………………
remind me to tell you the time that a unit named “ComPhibron-9″ “assisted” Israel, during the October 1973, “Yom Kippur War”.
that stuff is STILL WAY under the radar.
It is enough for me, at this point in my life, to KNOW, that the attack upon the USS Liberty, WAS, calculated, premeditated, and prosecued with cold-blooded savage literally blood-thirsty intent.
“This attack was NO accident or mistake!”. that sums it all up for me.
I was in a drug rehab, laying next to a Navy fella, who was missing most of one leg, before I ever had heard of this atrocity. I clearly remember tingking, that this guy was either still detoxing, or delusional. We spent about two weeks, laying next to each other. For awhile, we hung together. Now he’s dead, and I’m not.
The scope of this “incident” did un-nerve me that much.
As this guy related details, that only one who has “been there and done that” can do, I slowly became to believe, that many times, the big palookas at top, within out govermnent, are simply E_V_I_L_.
At present, I am acquainted with a fella or two, who were also on the ill-fated ship. They are clean and sober but stil messed up to the max.
Last word.
God Bless the USS Liberty and her gallant-brave-heroic crew.
And may her dead, both from that war criminal attack, and those who have passed on since then, Rest In Peace.
November 14, 2007 at 2:01 pm
Re: Hebrew linguist aboard USS Liberty
Documentary evidence indicates that one Hebrew trained linguist was aboard USS Liberty. See the full report here: http://usslibertyinquiry.googlepages.com/essay18
November 17, 2007 at 3:59 am
There is quite an effort to shift this attack from done by Israel to “LBJ and Zionist”, on totally pure possible storyline rather than evidence.
The attack went on way too long, for anything but Israel trying to trick the USA into entering the war and attacking Egypt. A typical false flag.
November 21, 2007 at 9:06 pm
A nation of sheep led by a cartel of whores, controlled by Israel/big business. Welcome,…to the REAL Evil Empire.
as long as you drones allow the elite/Israel/big business to fool you, you may not deserve it,…but your sure as hell asking for it. You are being screwed by the spawn of the SAME elite that 100 years ago had “our boys”, at the order of their “knee walking” friends in power, burn our women and children alive. (google Ludlow, Colorado) To avoid this again, when the sh*t hits the fan NEXT time, close all exits, (air, land, water), from the country, drag out ALL the elite and remove em from the goddamn gene-pool.
December 10, 2007 at 8:53 pm
The point is, we were not tasked to intercept Israeli communications and were specifically ordered not to collect Israeli signals. If anyone could understand Hebrew, that was incidental and accidental.
The point is, Israel had no idea what we were doing or what our capabilities were. That had only their own paranoia. We were there to listen to the Soviets. The Israelis attacked because they feared we might hear something they didn’t want us to hear.
December 16, 2007 at 5:22 pm
Does anyone believe President Ron Paul would continue to keep the USS Liberty archives secret? Does anyone believe Ron Paul will bend his principles for ANY foreign country? Does anyone know of another candidate of whom one could say the same?
RON PAUL 2008