Page:DoD USS Liberty Inquiry Press Release 28 Jun 1967.djvu/15

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It seemed to me that the attacks were made in a crisscross fashion over the ship, with each attack coming at approximately forty-five second to one minute intervals. After the starboard bridge bomb hit, I ordered personnel to be organized for a fire—fighting party to put out the fire in the vicinity of the whaleboat. The whaleboat was buming furiously. It is estimated that the total air attack was completed in approximately five to six minutes. About midway during the attack, Ensign Lucas was noted on the bridge and at that time he became my assistant and assisted me in every way possible. Runners were used to relay my orders to the repair parties, to main control and other vital stations.

Sometime after the starboard bridge bomb hit while on the starboard side of the pilothouse, another attack from the starboard quarter proceeding forward was made and I was hit with flying shrapnel. I was not knocked off my feet, I was only shaken up and it made me dance around a little bit, but my injuries did not appear to me to be of any consequence. I noticed slight burns on my starboard forearm and I notiCed blood oozing on my trousers right leg. Since I could walk and there was no apparent pain, I gave no further consider- ation to these minor injuries.

Shortly after this I Opened the bridge safe and took out a camera which was maintained on the bridge to take pictures of foreign ships and aircraft. I immediately took the camera to the port wing of the bridge and there was able to take several pictures of the planes as they had passed over the ship after their attack. In an effort to obtain d0cumentary evidence to establish the identity of the aircraft, I retained this camera in my possession throughOut the remainder of the attack. Later I took pictures of the torpedo boats before and after the torpedo attack, also the helicOpte rs which approached the ship after the attack was over. This film has been turned Over to the USS AMERICA for development and further diSposition.

On what appeared to be the last air attack on the ship, I observed a cylindrical object dropped from one of the aircraft as it was passing from port to starboard ahead of the ship. This object landed in the water an esti- mated 75 to 100 yards directly ahead of the ship. There was no explosion from this object, but it shattered into several pieces. It appeared to me that it might have been an empty wing tank but I am not certain of this.

In the latter moments of the air attack, it was noted that three high Speed boats were approaching the ship from the northeast on a relative bearing of approximately 135 at a distance of abOut 15 miles. The ship at the time was still on course 283 true, speed unknown, but believed to be in excess of five knots. At no time did the ship stop during the air attack. It is believed that the time of initial sighting of the torpedo boats was about 1420. The boats appeared to be in Rh