USS Liberty Survivor and Afton graduate Bryce Lockwood will share his life and military story at 2 p.m. in the Afton Library located at 105 Main Street in Afton. In 1967, 34 crew members were killed and 174 wounded when the USS Liberty was attacked by Israeli forces. Israel apologized claiming the Liberty had been mistaken for an Egyptian ship. (Submitted Photo) )

AFTON — USS Liberty Survivor and Afton Graduate Bryce Lockwood will discuss his life and military career at the Afton Free Library in the Susquehanna Room at 2 p.m. on July 9 located at 105 Main Street.

Lockwood said he was born on a small rural farm in New York State in 1939 and graduated from Afton High School in 1957. He enlisted in the Marine Corps and married in 1960. In the years ahead, his military career included language school in California where he was trained to be a Russian Linguist. He then went on to Cold War assignments in Scotland, Turkey, and at the time West Germany.

On June 8 1967, an attack by Israeli warplanes and torpedo boats bombarded the USS Liberty over the Six-Day War, resulting in 34 deaths and wounding 174 Americans. Israel would later apologize for the attack and offered the victims compensation.

Lockwood was the only U.S. Marine to survive and became the recipient of a Silver Star medal for rescuing three trapped sailors from flooded compartments. He also received a Purple Heart for severe burns caused by the torpedo explosion.

Lockwood said he was on duty based in Spain and had been overflying exercises in the sea north of England when someone came knocking on his room door with orders to join the USS Liberty. I had to be there by 0600 hours and barely had time to pack a sea bag. He arrived on the dock with two other marines and three civilians. They were ordered to join the ship.

“We were an intelligence gathering ship and were to keep track of what was going on between the Israeli and United Arab Republic War. I was a Voice Intercept Section Supervisor. I had five linguists that worked under me; three from the Navy were French, Spanish and Portuguese linguists and two marines were Arabic linguists.

The ship had a large antenna on the back as satellites were rudimentary at that time. The antenna had the capability of bouncing radio signals off the moon to the US Government in Maryland.

Lockwood said, the antennas hydraulic system that kept aim at the moon had a tendency to leak, and with a rolling, pitching sea, the fluid mixed with sea water and was creating a slick environment. They postponed sailing from Spain one day to get new fittings. The machinery department worked throughout the night adding new fittings to the antenna.

“We then set sail on the 2nd and arrived on station the night of June 6th. War broke out on the 5th, so we were a little late getting there. We had received information from other collection sights that the war had taken place and that Israel had initiated hostilities,” he added.

“I had the mid watch on the night of the 7th from 11p.m to 7 a.m. and after watch, I ate some breakfast, got a little sleep and then realized I needed some additional clothing,” Lockwood said. “I went to the small store on the ship and bought some t-shirts and shorts. I was stamping my name into my clothes when the ship was rocked with hostile fire. I had never been under attack before but I knew exactly what it was.”

Lockwood said there were about 180 men in the front part of the ship below deck with only one way out. When the captain announced, “Brace yourselves, Torpedo Attack, Starboard side,” a close friend of his was there and they joked “what else can they hit us with.”

Lieutenant Bennett stuck his head in the doorway and asked Lockwood to step out to the passage way where they had a conversation about the classified documents. They needed to be hauled up the narrow ladder and pitched over the side to destroy any top secret information.

Lockwood said that was when the sudden blast and excruciating noise happened. The blast put him on the deck and he was sitting there, leaning up against the ladder, when he felt something cold and looked down and water was gushing in. He struggled to his feet and heard a moan behind him.

“It was a fellow named Joe Rantini and he was part of a teletype communications crew. He had stepped out into the passage way where I was earlier and that’s when a piece of shrapnel from a rocket struck him in the thigh,” Lockwood said. “He was bleeding profusely and got a compress, then sat down on the deck and I was putting that compress on him when another torpedo struck. His femur bone was shredded.”

There were many more explosions and men to save. Lockwood spent the next fatal moments pulling bodies from the flooding waters, holding heads up and continually going back down to the lower section of the ship to save anyone he could.

“There was another body that was rolling out through the torpedo hole and I reached down to hold his head above water but don’t remember anything until some time later. Witnesses said I took the man out and laid him down and was told I couldn’t go back down there but I gave someone a white stare and went back down,” said Lockwood.

Lockwood said they were hit with 3,100 heavy caliber machine gun strikes, 826 large caliber strikes, 40 millimeter cannon fire, two strikes of napalm bombs, and over 800 strikes by rockets.

Lockwood said, “I’ve pretty much survived; had nightmares for many many years; but I’m pretty much over it now. It was probably tougher on my family than anyone else,” he added.

After a tour in Vietnam in 1971 and after thirteen years of service, medical retirement finally came. Lockwood continued to seek the truth regarding the assault on the USS Liberty which maimed or killed many of his friends.

Liberty Survivors petitioned Congress for an honest and thorough investigation of the attack.

“There were big letters on the side of the ship GTR5 that stands for General Technical Research fifth ship of the class. Technical research is a non combatant. You don’t shoot at a non combatant,” he said.

“Formal war crimes charges were filed some years ago,” Lockwood said. “It’s an obligation of the secretary of the army to investigate any charges of violations of International Law.”

“There was never any investigation done. I have a letter signed by Admiral Thomas Moore and Admiral Mark Hill, who was a commander of one of the aircraft carriers during the 6 day war, demanding the section of the army to look into this matter and he never did,” he said.

“The US Constitution requires US Congress investigate acts of piracy on the high sea; they never did,” said Lockwood.

Israel apologized for the attack and offered almost $7 million in compensation. They claimed it was a mistake as they thought the USS Liberty was an Egyptian ship. However, some Liberty survivors, and former U.S. Officials believe that the attack was deliberate and staged to hide Israel’s pending seizure of Syria’s Golan Heights, which took place the following day.

The newest biography, Liberty Wound’s, written by Russellville resident and military historian Jeremy Amik is the story of former U.S. Marine Bryce Lockwood, the only U.S. marine survivor of the USS Liberty attack and will be at the library.

The Afton Free Library and Afton Museum have joined together to bring this program to the community.

For more information call 607-639-1212 Monday and Tuesday 12 to 5 p.m., Thursday 12 to 7 p.m., Friday 9 a.m. To 5 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. To 1 p.m.