The Naval Hearing
After the attack ended, THE LIBERTY sailed northward through the night of June 8/9. At dawn it sighted destroyers of the Sixth Fleet, and by midmorning helicopters were taking the severely wounded from the ship to the carrier hospitals. The ship then received orders to continue its journey to Malta, where a Naval Court would be convened to consider the attack. (Despite its name, a Naval Court is not a court, but an investigative body).
RADM Isaac Kidd, who had been named to head the Court, came on board the ship with his fellow court members, three captains, on June 9. During the next few days he spoke informally to crew members to prepare for questions and testimony. He warned the crewmen that they could speak to no one about the attack until after the hearing, and then could speak only in the exact terms stated by the Court. The crewmen said that he threatened "court martial or worse" to those who might disobey.
The Naval Court convened on board the ship in Malta on June 16. The hearing lasted for two days. Captain McGonagle was the main witness, testifying for six hours. The other 12 crewmen who spoke testified for brief periods. James Ennes sent a statement from a hospital in Naples, which, he later learned, was read in court but not entered into the record.
![](http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid75/pdad1e9a330204e235a2863b5fe26a8ee/fb5966f0.jpg)
Wounded arriving USS America
There was a split between the captain and the crew over the testimony. To the dismay of the crewmen, McGonagle wanted to minimize the attack, perhaps feeling that he was partly responsible for the deaths and injuries because he had not withdrawn the ship from dangerous waters. He and the crew differed over the extent and closeness of Israeli aerial surveillance, duration of air attack and torpedo boat attack, and the time when the offer of help came from the torpedo boats.
In addition, the Court did not seem to be interested in much of the testimony of the crew. Some crewmen talked about the jamming of the ship's radios, but the court did not follow up or ask questions. Other crewmen who claimed that the ship's flag stood out clearly in the wind were insistently asked "Are you sure? Could you be mistaken?"
In the end the Court issued a series of "findings", some of which were in direct conflict with the testimony. Most importantly, all crewmen stated that the ship's flag could be easily seen by Israeli planes and boats, while the final finding on this issue stated (falsely) that "witnesses testified that the flag may have hung limp".
The Israelis during this time were issuing a series of reports on the attack, claiming that the ship had no flag, so the findings of the court reinforced the Israeli claims. The final report of the Court made no mention of jamming of the radios or the crewmen's claims that the torpedo boats had fired on the ship's liferafts. The Court record and summary thus gave no hint of the conflicting testimony which had actually been heard in the Court, or of the frequently rebellious atmosphere in the hearing. The crewmen reacted to all this with anger and dismay, later describing the hearing in letters to Ennes as a "hoax" and "whitewash".
The transcript and proceedings, totaling 707 pages, was sent to the London headquarters of CINCUSNAVEUR (Commander in Chief of US Naval Forces in Europe). There it was assigned for review to ADM Melvin Staring, Navy flag officer for the Judge Advocate General. As it turned out, unknown to the crewmen until many years later, Staring would agree with much of their view.
![](http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid75/p7f9fc820197171932b5f3ad55ac3f4e9/fb5966eb.jpg)
USS Davis arriving
Staring began his review, but it quickly became apparent that the survey would be difficult and time consuming. Early review produced pages of notes and questions which Staring felt he must resolve or comment upon before passing the record on.
Staring later told how he had worked on this transcript for two days and nights when he received word from ADM McCain, commander of CINCUSNAVEUR, that the work must be finished at once. When he replied that this was impossible, he was told he would be relieved of his assignment and endorsement would be prepared elsewhere in the staff. He ceased work and delivered the record to McCain's office. He therefore never completed his study or analysis.
Staring later saw a copy of the endorsement which CINCUSNAVEUR had signed and sent on to Washington. He says that those who replaced him had not dealt with the numerous problems, questions and inconsistencies which he had found so prevalent in the record. Their work, in his opinion, was low caliber.
Since Staring was the senior Navy lawyer on CINCUSNAVEUR staff, he knew that his superiors in Washington would assume that he was responsible for the report. Considering his professional reputation and integrity to be at risk, he immediately communicated personally and informally with the Judge Advocate General of the Navy, apprising him of the facts, and making it clear that he had neither prepared the endorsement nor been given an opportunity to conduct a complete review.
![](http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid75/p906033bb69fb5228962afa45ac1868cc/fb5966db.jpg )
Burned gun tub with USS Davis in the background
The Naval Court record, then, failed to pass muster with the legal officer assigned to first review it. However, the court record, minimizing the attack, remains as the "evidence" to which the defenders of the Johnson White House, and the Israeli Government, point in making their case and opposing the LIBERTY claims. We should note how A. Jay Cristol, the chief defender of the official history, deals with this record. He never interviewed Staring on the issue but instead claimed that Staring was a "perfectionist" who was disturbed by "typos" in the record and therefore could not complete his review. Staring, who was concerned with substance and not "typos", was enraged by this falsehood, and so should be all who read about the incident.
Washington View
Both President Johnson and Secretary McNamara claimed that they believed, when they first learned that THE LIBERTY had been attacked, that the USSR was the attacker. The LIBERTY men doubt this and believe that they have evidence that both men knew from the first hour that Israel was the attacker. The final resolution of this question must await fuller investigation.
Most members of the National Security Council Special Committee did not believe that the attack could be accidental, given the renowned excellence of Israeli intelligence, but they were uncertain about the motive. However, the anger of the Special Committee members toward Israel was irrelevant; it was Johnson and McNamara who were controlling events and making policy. They ordered LIBERTY to sail to Malta for a Naval Court hearing, with RADM Isaac Kidd presiding. Kidd went on board the ship on June 10 while it was still en route and at once began to gather information from crew members. He also told them that if they were questioned by the press that they must refer to the attack as accidental. So, from the first days, before the hearing began, the assault was "an accident".
As Press Secretary George Christian wrote later, the matter of what caused Israel to attack was not pursued because it was dwarfed by other events. The major consideration for LBJ at this time was whether the war could be stopped before there was a confrontation with the USSR. In these circumstances, and with the sudden prospect of an alliance with a victorious Israel, the matter of the attack on the ship faded into insignificance, and the Administration set out to promote the idea that the attack was accidental.
![](http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid75/p6f89c183902f21b2fb7f791c2a3d2560/fb597d4c.jpg)
Burial of six sailors from USS Liberty off Newport RI near bouy #3
Those critical of Israel kept their doubts to themselves and accepted the Administration view. The only brief rebellion against this consensus occurred when Dean Rusk spoke to NATO ministers in Luxembourg on June 17 and told them that the attack was deliberate. He was apparently reprimanded and silenced for this, and never spoke publicly on the issue again until 1980 when he was contacted by the LIBERTY crewmen.
LBJ also took steps to control the intelligence community for his own ends. COL Ralph Hoppe, then an army intelligence officer based in Florida, has told how in the aftermath of the attack dozens of messages came from Middle East sources, all describing the attack as deliberate. Orders came from the Pentagon to lock all this data away and keep it sealed. Contacts with other intelligence agencies revealed that they had received the same orders to close down their investigations.
In the Mediterranean, public affairs officers kept a close watch on the press and the crewmen. LIBERTY men were forbidden to talk to reporters without PA officers present. Crewmen later told Ennes how they were briefed and rehearsed for press conferences, to make sure that the attack was portrayed as an accident.
With the men so closely controlled, the Naval Court went ahead, producing a report which the crewmen considered rigged and false. The faults of this hearing were recognized by RADM Staring of the Judge Advocate General's office in London, as previously described, but the matter was taken out of his hands.
![](http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid75/p61ce3e7be735f7c67c0be9cb84a60e0b/fb597d4a.jpg)
Burial of six sailors from USS Liberty off Newport RI near bouy #3
Meanwhile, what of Congress? Most members were outraged and angry toward Israel. Dean Rusk on June 8 found members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee "enraged". Rep. Thomas Abernathy (D, Miss) later told Ennes that members of both houses felt that facts about the attack were being hidden, and that there was intense and ceaseless private discussion of the issue. "There was constant talk in the cloak room, dining room, standing behind the rails". He also said that the State Department on June 9 had officials meeting with members in a committee room and assuring them that the attack was an accident. This was a completely political judgment; the Naval Court to determine the facts would not start for another week. (Since Rusk was at this time insisting that the attack was deliberate, it would seem that Rusk was not in control of his own department).
Despite the views of Congressmen, there were no attempts to have an investigation of the issue. Later, on July 22, when McNamara testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, there was still much anger among the Senators and McNamara was challenged by Sen. Bourke Hickenlooper (R, Iowa). However, the senator was ill prepared (for instance, he knew nothing about the recall of the rescue flights) and McNamara came through the hearing with no serious challenge. The sum total of Congressional questioning, then, was very little: the questions to the Department of State men on June 9, and the questions to McNamara.
The Administration paid attention to small details in this matter. Letters of condolence from the White House to relatives of dead seamen avoided any mention of Israel as the attacker; they simply said that the seamen died in the cause of freedom.
Similarly, when a Medal of Honor was given to Captain McGonagle in June 1968, it was presented in a manner which the crew considered grudging and demeaning. It was presented at the Navy Yard by the Secretary of the Navy, rather than in the White House by the President, as is customary. The citation accompanying the award referred not to Israel but to nameless and faceless foreign "adversaries" who attacked the ship.
1 posted on
09/09/2003 12:00:24 AM PDT by
SAMWolf
To: AntiJen; snippy_about_it; Victoria Delsoul; bentfeather; radu; SpookBrat; bluesagewoman; HiJinx; ...
Press Control
The Administration was successful in its attempts to muffle and hide the questions surrounding the attack. The public was unaware of any issue, and the men were completely silenced.
![](http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid75/p2b71ca264eb76c560e916d6b75dd23cb/fb597d48.jpg)
Burial of six sailors from USS Liberty off Newport RI near bouy #3
The administration moved at once to isolate the men and to control news stories about the attack through CHINFO (Chief Information Office) and its PAs (public affairs officers).
- News was coordinated and centralized in the Pentagon.
- The LIBERTY crewmen were forbidden to talk to reporters except under conditions arranged by the PA officers. Control of the men came in two phases. From June 8 to 28, when the summary of the Naval Court was completed, the men were told that they could not speak at all. After June 2l they were told that they could speak only by repeating the exact words of the Summary.
- The crewmen were forbidden to speak of the matter even to members of their families. There were threats of demotion, dishonorable discharge loss of pensions and even possible imprisonment for those who might disobey.
- The crewmen were kept from the press by every possible means. Armed guards were stationed near the wounded men in the hospitals on the carriers, in Naples, and in Landshut, Germany. The crewmen on shore in Malta were under constant watch and were given daily orders to avoid the press.
- Only one newsman, Irving R. Levine of NBC News, tried to break through this wall of isolation. He came from Rome to interview Captain McGonagle but instead was given an interview with Admiral Kidd.
- The men were not allowed to merely remain silent. On the carrier AMERICA, in Malta, and later in Norfolk, they were ordered to take part in press conferences and told what to say. PA officers rehearsed the men and were present during the interviews.
- The Departments of State and Defense kept a close watch to see how "favorable" and "unfavorable" stories were reported.
- The crewmen were desperate to break out of their isolation and tell their story to the world. In the single case where a crewman managed to speak to a reporter the PA apparatus immediately put out a "counter story" through Reuters.
- The Naval Court and its Summary were themselves exercises in press control. The Summary presented the LIBERTY attack as the Pentagon wished it to be seen, leaving out all dissenting evidence from the crewmen.
The press was blithely unaware of the wall of censorship which the administration had built around the men and the incident, and made no attempt to break through. Instead the papers and journals contented themselves with comments upon the press releases from the US and Israeli governments, while awaiting the Naval Court summary.
In general, the Israelis, in official statements and in unofficial press releases, told three different stories of the attack. (1) They said that the ship had no flag or identification mark. (2) They said that the ship seemed to be an Egyptian ship disguised as American. In this version, the flag and identification were visible, part of the "disguise". (3) They presented the story of Micha Limor, identified as witness and participant, who told of a mysterious silent ship with no one on deck, which would not respond to signals or gunfire or pause for identification.
The press emphasized now one and now another of these inconsistent stories. No paper tried to analyze or summarize the stories, but instead one story was added to another. The press was mildly critical of Israel in the weeks after the attack, but there was no serious analysis. If there had been serious consideration, there would have been a question of the absurdity of the claim that the ship had no flag or identification. What possible purpose could be served by such insane behavior? Furthermore the ID number could be clearly seen on photos of the ship immediately after the attack, thus giving the lie to Israeli claims.
The complete lack of curiosity on the part of the press was illustrated on June 18, when the Naval Court was still in session. On that date two stories appeared in THE NEW YORK TIMES, side by side on the same page, given opposite accounts of the attack and of the hearings.
One dispatch was from Colin Frost of AP. He got his story from Lt. George Golden in a Malta bar. Golden denied regulations to speak to him. The story said in part:
A responsible source said today that senior crewmen of the LIBERTY were convinced that Israel's air and boat attack....was deliberate....They have testified to that effect before the navy inquiry court now in closed session...."We were flying the stars and stripes, and its absolutely impossible that they didn't know who we were", a survivor said. "This was a deliberate and planned attack."
The other story was an unsigned dispatch from Reuters:
Officers from the LIBERTY today rejected the idea that the attack was deliberate. One of the officers said that anybody who said the attack was deliberate was "out of his mind."
The Reuters story is a false and planted story, hastily rranged for the administration to counter the Frost story.No officer of crewmen of the LIBERTY, including Captain McGonagle, EVER said that the attack was accidental, and no crewmen on Malta spoke to a Reuters reporter or to any other reporter except Frost.
These two contrasting stories should have signaled to any interested observer that a public relations war was underway. However, there was no resonance to this event. No US paper picked up the Frost story (except for the Rome Daily News) and CHINFO noted with satisfaction that the story produced no echoes and no curiosity.
Press Reaction
The American press was often critical of Israel and skeptical about Israeli claims in the first few weeks after the attack on the Liberty. However, this original critical view did not result in any follow up by journalists. No paper or magazine sent a reporter to contact the crew, and the press criticism remained speculative and unverified.
From June 10 to 28, while the Navy worked to organize the Naval Court report, there was much journalistic speculation. On June 16 Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson wrote in their syndicated column that the attack had been planned in advance and was too well coordinated to have been accidental.
![](http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid75/pdafbc6ca51a73d41eba440d6ee86b2c1/fb597d45.jpg)
Burial of six sailors from USS Liberty off Newport RI near bouy #3
On June 19 NEWSWEEK'S "Periscope" stated that "some high Washington officials" suspected that the attack was deliberate; the ship had been attacked because it had evidence that Israel had begun the fighting.
On June 26 US NEWS said that US officials did not believe that the attack was accidental. The reason for the attack was not clear, however, and the magazine said that "the full story may never be told". (Here was an odd instance of surrendering before the battle was begun; a magazine which sends no reporters to contact the crew complains that the full story may never be told).
On June 27 William Buckley in NATIONAL REVIEW issued to most emphatic and angry statement of all the commentators: "Is the LIBERTY episode being erased from history? So it would seem.... What has happened to our prying journalistic corps and our editors, normally so indignant at suppression of the news?....We believe that a joint select committee of Congress should investigate the strange case of the USS LIBERTY....It remains logically possible that the Israeli command ordered the attack"....
On June 28 the Naval Court Summary was published, and it was criticized in most papers and magazines for failing to answer important questions. However, after this date the press began to increasingly favor the Israelis in their comments, for reasons which are not clear. For instance, the journals accepted the Israeli claims that the LIBERTY had no flag or other signs of identification, despite the testimony of the crew and the statements in the Summary. The stories which at first seemed to promise vigorous investigation fizzled out without results. Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson never followed up on their original claim that the attack was planned in advance, and in fact never referred again to the topic. (Years later, when LIBERTY crewmen asked him for more information on the topic, Anderson claimed to have no memory of the issue and could provide no information.)
Similarly, NATIONAL REVIEW did not follow up on Buckley's original claims. There were no more articles on the subject in NATIONAL REVIEW until September 5, when James Kilpatrick wrote "June 8 at 1400 Hours". Although Buckley had called for aggressive reporting, Kilpatrick was bland and hesitant. He reviewed some of the questions concerning the attack, without reaching any conclusion, and decided that "the questions beg for answers" but provided no answers. (Several years later I wrote to Buckley to ask why the magazine had changed its view so radically, but I received only a frivolous answer that "NATIONAL REVIEW chooses its battles".)
There were no more stories on the issue in 1967, and only two in 1968, both closing the books on the case. US NEWS and NEWSWEEK in their final articles ignored any previous skepticism and accepted as fact the Israeli claims that LIBERTY showed no flag or other signs of identification.
![](http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid75/p3ec1abefc5ebf0a966e345f9c425cbdc/fb597d40.jpg)
Torpedo hole as seen from drydock in Malta
We should note also the record of the NEW YORK TIMES on the LIBERTY issue. First, there is the TIMES editorial of June 10, 1967, declaring that the attack was accidental. At this time the ship was beginning its journey to Malta for an investigation. The editors knew nothing except that the ship had been attacked; Israel had claimed the attack was accidental; and wounded seamen (quoted in the TIMES of June 10, in fact) had declared that the attack was intentional. Nevertheless the TIMES never hesitated to declare the attack an accident, prior to all investigation, and has never wavered in this stand. The TIMES on June 18 printed contradictory stories side by side but did not investigate to see which story was true, and did not show much interest. On July 7, 1967 it printed the account by Micha Limor, which conflicted with all accounts to date, but did not seem to be concerned about the conflict.
THE TIMES for over three decades has had a policy of avoiding any mention of THE LIBERTY insofar as possible, as is illustrated by the following Orwellian account. In late August 1967 the American Legion met in Boston for its annual convention. The Legion passed a dozen resolutions, most of them relating to the Vietnam War. However, Resolution No. 508 dealt with THE LIBERTY and demanded an official inquiry into the attack. THE TIMES covered the convention in detail and wrote about the various resolutions debated and adopted. There was no mention, however, of No. 508, the LIBERTY resolution.
During the summer of 1967 there was much discontent in the State Department and the National Security Council over the LIBERTY matter. Secretary Rusk and Congressman Abernathy said that the Congress was enraged and absorbed in the issue, and that there was much hostility toward the official story. Rusk told his colleagues in Luxembourg that the attack was deliberate, and Hickenlooper and other senators were still angry in July when confronting McNamara. None of this discontent or political current was reported in the TIMES at the time, but was only discovered and reported later by the LIBERTY men and their newsletter.
The record of the press on the LIBERTY issue is an odd one, with silences, unexplained reversals of view, and especially failure to investigate by contacting the crew. The case presented by the US and Israeli governments was a flimsy one, and one crusading journal determined to find the truth could have destroyed the entire official history.
Additional Sources: www.history.navy.mil
ussliberty.org
thewebfairy.com
www.usswitek.org
2 posted on
09/09/2003 12:01:11 AM PDT by
SAMWolf
(A horse may be forced to drink but a pencil must be lead.)
To: SAMWolf
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on September 09:
1585 Cardinal A Jean de Plessicide de Richelieu Louis XIII chief minister
1754 William Bligh nasty ship's captain (HMS Bounty)
1828 Leo Tolstoy Russia, novelist (War & Peace, Anna Karenina)
1850 Harishchandra India, poet/dramatist/father of modern Hindi
1853 Frederick R Spofforth Australia, cricketer (Demon)
1868 Mary Austin Ill, feminist/nature writer (Land of Little Rain)
1877 Frank Chance baseball player/manager, Tinkers to Evers to Chance
1880 Viking Eggeling Sweden, artist/film maker (Diagonal Symphony)
1887 Alfred Landon (R-Ks) pres candidate (1932, 1936)
1890 Harland Sanders Kentucky Fried Chicken founder/colonel
1898 Frank (Fordham Flash) Frisch NYC, baseball player (NL MVP 1931)
1899 Neil Hamilton Lynn Mass, actor (Commisioner Gordon-Batman)
1900 James Hilton hotel magnate (Hilton Hotels)
1907 Pinky Tomlin Eureka Springs Ark, singer/actor (Tip-Waterfront)
1908 John Haeton US, bobsled (Olympic-silver-1928, 48)
1912 Kurt Sanderling Arys Germany, conductor (E Berlin Symph 1960-77)
1919 Jacques Marin Paris, actor (Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo)
1919 Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder gambler/sportscaster (lay you 5 to 1)
1924 Jane Greer Wash DC, actress (Prisoner of Zenda, Clown)
1924 Nino Bibbia Italy, bobsled (Olympic-gold-1948)
1925 Cliff Robertson La Jolla Calif, actor (Charly)/spokesman for AT&T
1932 Sylvia Miles NYC, actress (Midnight Cowboy, Farewell My Lovely)
1935 Chaim Topol Tel Aviv Israel, actor (Fiddler on the Roof)
1941 Les Braid England, bass (Swinging Blue Jeans-You're No Good)
1941 Otis Redding Georgia, rocker (Sitting on the Dock of the Bay)
1942 Inez Foxx Greensboro NC, rocker (Mockingbird, Hi Diddle Diddle)
1943 Roger Waters rocker (Pink Floyd-The Wall)
1946 Billy Preston singer/pianist, the 5th Beatle (David Brenner Show)
1947 Lynn Fitzgerald marathoner (ran 133 miles 939 yards in 24 hrs)
1949 Joe Theismann NFL QB (Redskins)
1949 John Curry England, figure skater (Olympic-gold-1976)
1950 Tom Wopat Lodi Wisc, actor (Luke Duke-Dukes of Hazzard)
1951 Michael Keaton Pitts Pa, actor (Gung Ho, Batman)
1951 Robert Desiderio Bronx NY, actor (Det Kennedy-Heart of the City)
1952 Angela Cartwright England (Make Room for Daddy, Lost in Space)
1952 Dave Stewart rocker (Eurythmics-Here Comes the Rain Again)
1966 David Bennent Lausanne, actor (Tin Drum, Legend)
Deaths which occurred on September 09:
1087 William I The Conqueror, King of England, & Duke of Normandy, dies
1817 Paul Cuffe entrepreneur/ civil rights activist, dies at 58
1834 James Weddell Explorer, Navigator, English, Antarctic explorer
1851 Thomas H. Gallaudet Educator, Pioneer of educating the deaf
1901 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Painter
1962 Pat Rooney vaudevillian, dies at 82
1971 Billy Gilbert (Great Dictator, His Gal Friday), dies at 76
1975 John McGiver actor (Patty Duke Show, Jimmy Stewart Show), dies at 61
1976 Mao Tse-Tung Chinese communist party chairman (1949-76), dies at 82
1990 Samuel K Doe Liberian president, killed by rebels
1996 Bill Monroe Country Singer/Guitarist, Songwriter, Mandolin, Banjoist. Creator of Bluegrass
1997 Burgess Meredith Actor
Reported: MISSING in ACTION
1965 STOCKDALE JAMES B. ABINGDON IL. [02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1966 BLEVINS JOHN C. SAN ANTONIO TX.
[03/04/73 RELEASED BY DRV,ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1966 FISCHER JOHN RICHARD PITTSBURGH PA.
POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.
On this day...
337 Constantine's three sons, already Caesars, each take the title of Augustus. Constantine II and Constans share the west while Constantius II takes control of the east.
701 St Sergius I ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1513 Battle of Flodden Fields; English defeat James IV of Scotland
1543 Mary, Queen of Scots is is crowned Queen of England (Mary, Mary quite contrary. How does your garden grow)
1556 Pope Paul IV refuses to crown Ferdinand of Austria emperor
1739 Slave revolt in Stono SC led by Jemmy (25 whites killed)
1776 Continental Congress renames "United Colonies," "United States"
1786 George Washington calls for the abolition of slavery.
1817 Alexander Lucius Twilight, probably 1st black to graduate from US college, receives BA degree at Middlebury College
1830 Charles Durant, 1st US aeronaut, flies a balloon from Castle Garden, NYC to Perth Amboy, NJ
1839 John Herschel takes the 1st glass plate photograph
1841 Great Lakes steamer "Erie" sinks off Silver Creek NY, kills 300
1850 California becomes 31st state
1850 Territories of New Mexico & Utah created
1862 Lee splits his army & sends Jackson to capture Harpers Ferry
1867 Luxembourg gains independence
1875 Lotta's Fountain (Kearny & Market) dedicated
1880 President Hayes visits SF
1892 Almalthea, 5th moon of Jupiter, discovered by EE Barnard at Lick
1895 The American Bowling Congress formed (NYC)
1899 French Capt Alfred Dreyfus sentenced to Devil's Island on trumped-up grounds
1904 Boston Herald again refers to NY baseball club as Yankees, when it reports "Yankees take 2," Yankee name not official till 1913
1908 Orville Wright makes 1st 1-hr airplane flight, Fort Myer, Va
1911 1st airmail service (British Post Office)
1912 J Verdrines becomes 1st to fly over 100 mph (107 mph/172 kph)
1913 Assn for Study of Negro Life & History organizes in Chicago
1914 Boston Brave George Davis no-hits Phila Phillies, 7-0
1919 Boston's police force goes on strike
1922 St Louis Brown Baby Doll Jacobson hits 3 triples beating Tigers 16-0
1926 National Broadcasting Co created by the Radio Corporation of America
1927 Tony Lazzeri Day at Yankee Stadium
1932 Frank Crosetti ties record, strikes out twice in 1 inning
1936 Yanks clinch 8th pennant
1942 1st bombing on continental US soil, Mount Emily Or (WW2)
1943 Italy surrenders to the Allies
1944 Allied forces liberate Luxembourg
1944 Bulgaria liberated from Nazi control (often referred to as the invasion of Bulgaria by Russia) (National Day)
1945 Japanese in S Korea, Taiwan, China, Indochina surrender to Allies
1945 1st "bug" in a computer program discovered by Grace Hopper, a moth was removed with tweasers from a relay & taped into the log
1945 Jimmie Foxx hits his 534th & final HR
1945 Phila A's Dick Fowler no-hits St Louis Browns, 1-0
1948 Bkln Dodger Rex Barney no-hits NY Giants, 2-0
1948 People's Democratic Republic of Korea proclaimed
1950 1st use of TV laugh track-Hank McCune
1956 Elvis Presley appears on national TV for 1st time (Ed Sullivan)
1957 Nashville's new Hattie Cotton Elementary School dynamited
1958 Pirate Roberto Clemente ties record of 3 triples in a game
1960 4th American Football League plays 1st game (Denver 13, Boston 10)
1963 Landslide into Vaiont Dam emptys lake, kills 3-4,000 (Italy)
1965 Sandy Koufax pitches his 4th no-hitter, a perfect game vs Cubs (1-0)
1965 French President Charles de Gaulle announced that France was withdrawing from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), in protest of U.S. domination of NATO
1965 Tibet is made an autonomous region of China
1966 John Lennon meets Yoko Ono at an avante-garde art exposition
1967 1st successful test flight of a Saturn V
1968 1st US Open, held as an "open" (Arthur Ashe-wins)
1968 Minn Tommy Krammer passes for 6 touchdowns vs Green Bay (42-7)
1969 Allegheny 853 collides with Piper Cherokee above Indiana, kills 82
1970 U.S. Marines launch Operation Dubois Square, a 10-day search for North Vietnamese troops near DaNang.
1971 1,000 convicts seize Attica, NY prison
1971 John Lennon & Yoko Ono appear on the Dick Cavett Show (ABC-TV)
1971 John Lennon releases the "Imagine" album
1971 NHL great Gordie Howe retires
1975 Viking 2 launched toward orbit around Mars, soft landing
1977 1st TRS-80 computer sold
1978 3rd game of the Boston Massacre; Yanks beat Red Sox 7-0
1978 Balt Orioles pull their 7th triple play (5-4-3 vs Toronto)
1978 Iraqi Ayatollah Khomeini calls for uprising in Irani army
1979 John McEnroe beats Vitas Gerulaitis, for the US Open Tennis title
1979 Sid Bernstein offers $« billion for a Beatle reunion
1979 Yusef Islam (Cat Stevens) weds Fouzia Ali at Kensington Mosque
1981 Vernon E Jordan resigns as president of National Urban League
1982 Columbia mated with SRBs & external tank in preparation for STS-5
1982 Conestoga 1, 1st private commercial rocket, makes suborbital flight
1983 Challenger returns to Kennedy Space Center via Sheppard AFB, Texas
1983 Radio Shack announces their color computer 2 (the Coco2)
1983 Vitas Gerulatis bets his house that Martina Navratilova can't beat the 100th ranked male tennis player
1984 Calif Angel Michael Witt is 11th to pitch a perfect baseball game
1984 John McEnroe beats Ivan Lendl, for the US Open Tennis title
1986 NYC jury indicts Gennadly Zakharov (Soviet UN employee) of spying
1987 Gary Hart admits to cheating on his wife on "Nightline"
1987 Larry Bird (Celtics), begins NBA free throw streak of 59
1987 Nolan Ryan strikes out his 4,500th batter
1988 US swamps New Zealand at 27th America`s Cup: NZ set to appeal
1989 Steffi Graf beats Martina Navratalova for the US Open championship
1990 Bush & Gorbachev meet in Helsinki & urge Iraq to leave Kuwait
1991 Only 1,695 fans watch Boston Red Sox play Clevland
1999 More than 90 people died in the bombing of a Moscow apartment building. The blast was blamed on terrorists from the breakaway republic of Chechnya.
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Bulgaria, Luxembourg : Liberation Day (1944)
California : Admission Day (1850)
Italy : Salerno Day-Allied landing (1943)
North Korea : National Day
US : National Grandparents' Day (Sunday)
Afgh nist n : National Assembly Foundation Day (1964) (Wednesday)
Scotland : Fisherman's Walk Day (Friday)
Fall Hat Week (Day 2)
Kiss a Bald Head Week (Day 3)
Hand-Craft Soap Month
Religious Observances
Ang : Commemoration of Constance & her companions
Christian : St Gorgonius, martyr
RC-US : Memorial of Peter Claver, priest
Religious History
1561 The Colloquy of Poissy convened near Paris. Comprised of both French Catholic prelates and reformed Protestant theologians led by Theodore Beza, the council led to a 1562 edict offering a greater measure of freedom to French Protestants.
1598 A celebration was held for the newly completed Catholic church at San Juan de los Caballeros -- the first church erected in (what is today the state of) New Mexico. The town, founded this year by Juan de Onate, was a former Indian pueblo in the Chama River Valley.
1833 The first tracts of the Oxford Movement (which sought to purify the English Church) were released. The series was forced to close in 1841, however, when Tract 90 was published, because it interpreted Anglicanism's "Thirty-Nine Articles" in too strong of a Roman Catholic direction.
1863 Dwight Moody's future song evangelist, Ira D. Sankey, 23, married Fanny Edwards, daughter of a Pennsylvania State Senator. Their marriage of 45 years bore two sons, one of whom -- Ira H. Sankey -- became a songwriter like his father.
1952 The religious program 'This is the Life' premiered on Dumont (later ABC) television. This long-running series was produced under the auspices of the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church.
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Thought for the day :
"Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday."
You might be a Trekkie if...
you go out looking for Star Wars fans to beat up.
Murphys Law of the day...(war laws)
A Purple Heart just proves that were you smart enough to think of a plan, stupid enough to try it, and lucky enough to survive.
Cliff Clavin says, it's a little known fact that...
The worlds 1st roller coaster opened in 1884 at Coney Island, New York. It was designed by Lemarcus Thompson, a former Sunday school teacher.
7 posted on
09/09/2003 5:34:19 AM PDT by
Valin
(America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy.)
To: All
10 posted on
09/09/2003 6:11:25 AM PDT by
jriemer
(We are a Republic not a Democracy)
To: SAMWolf
Okay, fellow retirees and veterans, this is going to get some brogans or boots thrown at me..... I hope you will forgive a slightly commercial plug but every time I raised my hand and said the oath the word 'Constitution' has had special meaning for me (and I know all of you). I have been looking for years for good parchment copies of the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and the Bill of Rights to frame and hang on the wall and I have finally found a source for excellent reproductions. I have placed these precious documents on my
G. I. Memories web page for any who might want them.
Without God and the Constitution where would we be?
28 posted on
09/09/2003 11:04:50 AM PDT by
hardhead
('Curly, don't say its a fine morning or I'll shoot you.' - John Wayne, 'McLintock' 1963)
To: *all
Air Power E-2C Hawkeye
![](http://globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/images/e-2c-dvic205.jpg) |
The U.S. Navy E-2C Hawkeye is the "eyes and ears" for US Carrier Battle Groups. They are equipped with a long range surveillance radar, and have significant communication capability. The E-2C Hawkeye is normally based aboard aircraft carriers, acting as the airborne "quarterback," or battle manager for the fleet. There currently is one squadron of four Hawkeyes in each carrier air wing (CVW). The E-2C Hawkeye is an all-weather, tactical airborne warning and control system platform. It provides all-weather airborne early warning and command and control functions for the carrier battle group. With it's distinctive 24 foot diameter rotating radome and more than 12,000 pounds of electronics, the E-2C can monitor 6 million cubic miles of airspace and more than 150,000 square miles of ocean surface for the presence of aircraft, missiles, ships, and fixed targets. The Hawkeye's long-range radar and other electronic surveillance systems can simultaneously detect and track hundreds of ships and aircraft more than 200 miles away. With its specialized computer and communication equipment, the E-2C can also be used for missions such as air traffic control, surface surveillance coordination, strike and interceptor control, search and rescue guidance and communications relay. Designed and built by Northrop-Grumman Corporation, the has been on active duty with the US Navy since 1973.
The E-2 serves in a very similar role as that of the USAF E-3 AWACS. For this reason, E-2s are sometimes called "mini - AWACS." However, the E-2C does offer some advantages which the E-3 does not. For instance, the Hawkeye can provide its radar operators with raw radar data rather than only computer-generated, processed information. In some cases (with a skilled operator at the console) this can mean picking up contacts that the signal processors miss. Their primary mission is air defense, but they have operated as ABCCC platforms (Airborne Command Control and Communication), most recently in Kosovo. All of them are equipped with Navy Tactical Data System (NTDS) Link 11 and Fighter Control Link 4A. The block two aircraft have an improved radar and have Data Link 16 Joint Tactical Integrated Data System (JTIDS) installed.
Since its combat debut during the Vietnam conflict, the E-2 has served the Navy around the world. Hawkeyes directed F-14 Tomcat fighters flying combat air patrol during the two-carrier battle group joint strike against terrorist-related Libyan targets in 1986. E-2Cs and AEGIS cruisers, working together, provided total air mass superiority over the American fleet. More recently, E-2Cs provided the command and control for successful operations during the Persian Gulf War, directing both land attack and combat air patrol missions over Iraq and providing control for the shoot-down of two Iraqi MIG-21 aircraft by carrier-based F/A-18s in the early days of the war.
The E-2C provides air control to fighter aircraft to intercept enemy air threats, while reporting the situation back to the Battle Group and maintaining a tactical picture through the on-board data links. When it comes to projecting power ashore, the crew directs the concerted efforts of a strike to ensure interceptors, attack, and electronic warfare aircraft arrive and depart hostile territory safely.
Specifications:
Contractor: Northrop Grumann, Westinghouse
Primary Function: Airborne early warning, command and control
Crew: Five
Unit Cost: $51 million
Powerplant: Two Allison T-56-A427 turboprop engines; (5,000 shaft horsepower each)
Dimensions:
Length: 57 feet 6 inches (17.5 meters)
Wingspan: 80 feet 7 inches (28 meters)
Height: 18 feet 3 inches (5.6 meters)
Weights: Empty: 38,063 lb (17265 kg) / Maximum Takeoff: 51,933 lb (23556 kg)
Performance :
Speed: 300+ knots (345 mph, 552 km/h)
Ceiling: 30,000 feet (9,100 meters)
Combat Radius: 1,300 nautical miles
Ferry range: 1,540-1,542 nm
Time on station, 175 nautical miles from base: 4 hr. 24 min
Endurance with maximum fuel: 6 hr. 15 min
Armaments:
Lockheed Martin Ocean, Radar, and Surveillance Systems [ex General Electric Corporation] AN/APS-145 radar since 1991
AN/ALR-73 Passive Detection System, IFF
![](http://globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/images/e2_3-s.jpg)
![](http://globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/images/e-2c-016_s.jpg)
![](http://globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/images/e-2c-600-clouds_s.jpg)
All photos Copyright of Global Security.Org
32 posted on
09/09/2003 12:42:45 PM PDT by
Johnny Gage
(God Bless President Bush, God Bless our Troops, and GOD BLESS AMERICA)
To: SAMWolf
Sam, I went back to yesterday's thread to study the picture of the ship. It is obviously some kind of communication or intelligence ship. I'm no sailor, but don't navies maintain books with the naval ships of the world identified? The Israelis had the ship spotted for hours, plenty of time to check with the general staff for an I.D. The attack sure seems deliberate. The question I have is why?
I read a recent book on the genesis of the U.S. - Israeli alliance during the Kennedy administration. Interestingly, at the same time the New Frontiersmen were trying to put together an alliance with Nasser, a relationship like we have today with Egypt. Nasser was interested, but when he went to war in Yemen against the Saudis it was too hard to put together. Still, some very high level State Department types wanted a deal with Nasser. Did the Israelis suspect we were feeding Nasser intelligence?
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