The Retired Officer
August 1998

Worn with Pride
by Margaret Bone

The following is excerpted from the
seven page article:

Captain William L. McGonagle, USN-Ret.,
received his Medal of Honor on June 11,
1968, for a deliberate attack that has
yet to be adequately clarified to
McGonagle, his crew on USS Liberty, or
the American public.  McGonagle is no
longer reticent about the sudden, still
unexplained Israeli attack on June 8,
1967, that inflicted a 70 percent
casualty rate on his crew of 300.

While sailing in international waters
off the coast of Sinai, the defenseless
Liberty was, without warning, violently
attacked by Israeli Mirage jets, then
hit by napalm strikes from Mystere jets,
and finally, as she lay burning and
shattered, strafed and torpedoed by
three Israeli torpedo boats.  With his
terribly wounded leg propped in a chair
to staunch the bleeding, McGonagle
stayed on the bridge for more than 17
hours until the first U.S. help
arrived.  Thirty-four men were killed;
another 171 were wounded.  For his
bravery and leadership that hellish day
and night, McGonagle received the only
Vietnam-era Medal of Honor awarded for
action outside Southeast Asia.

"I perceived it as the highest honor
accorded me in my lifetime.  I didn't
feel I should have received it; I was
doing what was my responsibility.  I
even tried to talk the secretary of the
Navy out of presenting it to me, but he
said, 'Well, Bill, when you finish that
coffee, we'll hold the ceremony as we
have planned,' and I said, 'Aye, aye,
Sir.'"

Perhaps because of the politics
involved, McGonagle was not among the 12
men who received their Medals that same
day in the White House from President
Lyndon Johnson.  McGonagle's ceremony
was held at the Washington Navy Yard.
"I didn't know about the other 12
recipients.  But we all ended up at a
Washington Senators baseball game that
night, and the announcer asked for all
Medal of Honor recipients to stand, so I
popped right up and was surprised at how
many of us there were."

In characterizing the impact being a
recipient had on his active duty life,
he comments, "In some respects, it's a
burden on your personal life.  I can't
kick up my heels very much   not that I
ever did   but the medal holds you to a
higher standard.  I didn't receive any
more promotions but did receive three
duty assignments I'd requested.  I felt
that my peers were generally pleased and
supportive, but you know, you're never a
hero in your own home."

McGonagle has a full scheduled devoted
to Medal of Honor activities.  There are
speaking engagements and appearances in
parades.  Last year the Navy named a
clinic in McGonagle's honor at the
Northwest Naval Security Group Activity.