Chronicler of Valor Finally Meets Hero

Behind every Medal of Honor winner is a writer, the little-known person who talks to witnesses, gathers information and writes an official account of the courageous battlefield act.

It may be the only account high-ranking officers have when they decide what honors and medals should be pinned on the uniforms of their men, so a good writer helps.

Sometimes the writer and the battlefield hero never meet. On Thursday, in one case, they did.

It happened because the 15th National Convention of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society had opened in Irvine for 150 men who hold the Medal of Honor, America’s highest award for bravery.

Roy Payne, a teacher from Laguna Hills High School, had accompanied three students to a reception breakfast for the heroes at the Irvine Hilton. It was there that he met former Navy Capt. William L. McGonagle of Palm Springs.

‘So Excited’

“I couldn’t believe it,” Payne said. “I got so excited I thought I would stand up and yell.”

Payne said he had always wanted to meet the hero he wrote about. They were once in the same town in Oklahoma but didn’t get a chance to meet.

Then Payne heard that McGonagle, who was credited with saving his ship and many of his crew, would not only be in town, but at the same school at which Payne was now teaching.

McGonagle’s name triggered thoughts of 20 years ago, when a lightly armed, Navy electronics ship was attacked by Israeli fighter jets and torpedo boats in international waters in the eastern Mediterranean. The attack occurred during the Six-Day War between Israel and surrounding Arab nations.

The USS Liberty was nearly sunk, and 34 crew members were killed. Many were wounded, including McGonagle, who was in charge of the 675-foot-long ship and a crew of nearly 300.

(There is dispute over whether the attack on the ship was intentional or accidental. Israel has always maintained the attack was an accident, an assertion the U.S. government does not officially dispute. Others theorize that the attack was deliberate because the Liberty was an intelligence-gathering ship and the Israelis feared that such a ship could endanger their air operations, the key to victory in the Six-Day War.)

Ensign Payne, who served nearly four years in the Navy, recalled his superior officer saying, “See what kind of medal we can get him.”

Studied Criteria

“I studied the criteria for different awards,” Payne said, recalling the wrenching descriptions of the attack from crew members.

“I remember saying, ‘Let’s go for the big one.’ ”

Payne’s citation read in part: “McGonagle, although severely wounded during the first air attack, remained on his battle station on the badly damaged bridge and, with full knowledge of the seriousness of the wounds, subordinated his own welfare to the safety and survival of his command. Despite continuous exposure to fire, he maneuvered his ship, directed its defense, supervised the control of flooding and fire and saw to the care of the casualties.

“His actions inspired the surviving members of the Liberty’s crew, many of them seriously wounded, to efforts to overcome the battle damage and keep the ship afloat. Subsequent to the attack, although in great pain and weak from the loss of blood, he remained at his battle station and continued to command his ship for more than 17 hours.

“It was only after rendezvous with a U.S. destroyer that he relinquished personal control of the Liberty and permitted himself to be removed from the bridge. His leadership saved his ship and many lives.”

Payne is the first to say he had nothing to do with McGonagle’s winning the Medal of Honor.

“But I was really proud doing it,” Payne said.

After breakfast at the Irvine Hilton, McGonagle visited Laguna Hills High School, where he gave a talk to students about hard work and how “it doesn’t hurt.”

He later described the attack on his ship but would not speculate on whether it was intentional.

“I just don’t know. I was just carrying out my orders,” he said.