Page:DoD USS Liberty Inquiry Press Release 28 Jun 1967.djvu/13

3. of coffee and critique the drill with the Executive Officer, Lieutenant Commander Armstrong, the Engineering Officer, Lieutenant Golden, and the Damage Control Officer, Ensign Scott, if I have not been particularly satisfied with the drill. If the drill has been satisfactory, usually I contact the officers on an individual basis at some later time during the day and indicate to them that I was satisfied with the drill and point out some of the errors in which improvement could be made and point out also to them the things that I felt had been done properly. I was satisfied with the performance of the crew for the afternoon drill and did not assemble the above-mentioned officers in the wardroom for a critique.

After general quarters was over from the drill, I lingered on the bridge for a few minutes. As I recall, the following officers were present on the bridge: LCDR Armstrong, Lt. Ennis, Lt. O'Connor, who is normally officer of the deck during general quarters, Lt. Toth, the Operations and Navigator also Intelligence Officer. Lt(jg) Painter came onto the bridge after general quarters to assume the watch as the officer of the deck. At that time, and the time was approximately 1400, I personally sighted the minaret at El Arish to be on a bearing of 142 from the ship and the range as I recall from the radar was approximately 25.5 miles. I do not know that this radar range can be verified from the records available at this time. I had also earlier in the day established a danger bearing on the minaret at El Arish to be 119 degrees true from the ship. The danger bearing was established to insure that the ship remained clear of shoal areas to the south of the south westernmost edge of our operating area.

At this point in the preparation of my statement, I referred to the quarter-master's notebook, 12-1600 watch, Thursday, 8 June 1967. I referred to this log for the purpose of refreshing my memory as to the initial moments of the unexpected attack. The log shows that at 1355, Lt(jg) Painter relieved Lt. O'Connor as officer of the deck. The log also shows that at 1355, Ens. O'Malley, as junior officer of the deck under instruction, assumed the conn. The 12-1600 watch on Thursday, 8 June 1967 has no entry from the time frame 1356 until 1446. I shall relate in my own words and to the best of my knowledge and belief all events of which I have personal knowledge which occurred during that time frame.

About 1400 the lookouts, who were stationed on the 04 level, immediately above the bridge, reported that jet aircraft were sighted in the vicinity of the ship. At that time, I went to the starboard wing of the bridge with my binoculars and there observed one aircraft of similar characteristics, if not identical, to the two aircraft which were sighted earlier in the day and upon which a sighting report had been submitted. The relative bearing of this plane was about 135, its position angle about 45 to 50 degrees, its elevation approximately 7,000 feet, and it was approximately five to six miles from the ship. It appeared to be on a parallel course traveling in the same direction as the ship. While I observed this aircraft, I did not see it approach the ship directly in a hostile attitude.