Larry Lloyd Bowen, (093-38-7652) Support Documentation for Notice of Disagreement to substantiate my Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Claim that was previously evaluated at 30% disability per VA letter dated April 24, 2017. Before | begin, please understand that for the past fifty (50) years | have been living with the fear that if | ever talked about this incident to anyone | could be imprisoned or fined or both. The crew was told this before we ever hit port in Malta and before anyone ever testified before a quickly held Navy Court of Inquiry. This is all regarding the Attack on the USS Liberty AGTR-5 on June 8, 1967 during the Six Day Arab-Israeli War. I had the day watch in Radio Research 1 (RR 1) spaces where | was a Communications Technician Radioman Second Class (CTR2) sitting a manual Morse collection position on the Intelligence Ship USS Liberty (AGTR-5). When my buddy Bob Eisenberg came over so we could go to chow he told me about how important our mission was. When we came back from chow the Skipper held a “practice” General Quarters Drill” which is routinely done to keep everyone on their toes in the event of a real emergency. Since we were operating in a declared War Zone, having this type of drill not only made perfect sense but in hindsight probably saved many lives. At approximately 1400 (2:00 PM) local time all hell broke loose. The Captain came over the 1MC (intercom) and declared GENERAL QUARTERS!! GENERAL QUARTERS!! THIS IS NOTA DRILL GENERAL QUARTERS! | can hear that still today as clear as a bell. We all scrambled to our assigned battle stations to prepare for what was about to happen. Little did we know that for some of us we wouldn't live to see another day and for others of us our lives would never be the same. | remember quickly moving from my position in RR 4 and climbing up the ladder through the hatch to the next level where | took up a position directly above the Communications Center and Processing and Reporting (P&R) Center. | remember hearing what sounded like heavy anchor chains being dragged across the decks above which | later realized must have been the sound of the 50-calibre rounds hitting the deck from the jets strafing runs. The Israeli jets strafing runs wiped out all four of our 50-calibre gun mounts on the first pass. They also hit all our transmitting antennae either with 50-calibre rounds our 30 mm rockets or both. All the time that was going on outside | was stil siting a position above the P&R center inside. In any case, | could see white flashes coming through the skin of the ship which | suspect were tracer rounds of the 50-calibre fire and those images are still very vivid today. Another set of aircraft arrived on the scene and dropped napalm in several areas which immediately added another level of danger for our crew. Several of our shipmates were called to fight those fires while still under siege from the strafing jets. Anyone who was topside during this unprovoked attack had absolutely no chance of surviving unless he was fortunate enough to get into the hull of the ship prior to that first wave of bullets. Unfortunately, several of my shipmates were not that lucky.The fires caused by the dropped napalm had sent at least three damage control teams topside fighting fires while still under fire by aircraft and approaching torpedo boats. | mention this because | will talk about it later as it relates to some of my trauma dealing with not being able to save the life of one of those fire fighters who was mortally wounded while trying to put out one of those blazes. After the jets had inflicted the damage from the rockets, napalm, and 50-calibre rounds, 3 Israeli PT (Torpedo) boats arrived on the scene and launched 5 torpedoes in an attempt to put us to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. The Captain came over the 4MC again and said PREPARE FOR TORPEDO ATTACK!!! | think at that point we all ‘thought this was the end. | know Clyde Way and I took our positions with our backs against the bulkhead and our butts on the deck waiting for the inevitable. The Lord was with us that day because only One torpedo nit the ship directly below where we were sitting. The damage was devastating and deadly. It immediately Killed 25 crewmembers directly below me and left a 24 by 39-foot hole in our starboard side which put the ship dead in the water and flooded the entire Research Spaces below me with some 90 plus shipmates stil fighting for their lives. The impact from the torpedo explosion propelled Clyde Way and me from our seated position on the deck to the overhead where we both hit our heads and then fell back to the deck. Once | regained my composure, Clyde and Irealized that we needed to get outside to help get our shipmates out of the flooded compartments below before they all drowned. The entire area around us was a total disaster with equipment and racks strewn everywhere. It was a chore to get anywhere because the entire operations area had been completely blown apart because of the torpedo explosion Lt Bennett, Clyde Way and a least one othe: sailor took up positions at the hatch leading to the area below deck to the flooded compartment while I took up a position at our front entrance handing out life jackets tc the survivors as they came out heading toward a casualty collection area. Most of these men were injured themselves or assisting others who were injured. This whole process was very emotional and stressful with everyone wondering out loud what was going on and why this was happening Even more were asking why wasn't anyone coming to our aid!!! Seeing these men ‘coming up all bloody and maimed is an image that never goes away. It may have been 50 years ago but you've been told never to tell anyone about it and never to talk about it but you've never been told WHY??? As the last shipmate was pulled from the flooded compartment below and the water was about to reach the top of the hatch Lt Bennett made one last tearful plea into the watery grave below ‘if anyone is stil alive in there just pound on a metal pipe and we will come in and get you.” With nothing being heard he gave the order to dog down the hatch and we all left the area. | hope you know that I am crying even now when I type this because it stil hurts today when | relive that day.When | left the Research Spaces and secured the area, | went directly to the casualty collection station located outside the Chiefs Mess. This was where | was able to provide temporary first aid assistance with our corpsman who was trying frantically to save the life of our Postal Clerk who had been mortally wounded by hostile fire while outside fighting a napalm fire from an earlier bombing run. Another sailor and | gave Mouth-to- Mouth and chest compression efforts to try and keep him alive but to no avail. | wake up many nights wondering if there was anything else we could have done to maybe save his life. Maybe if the 6” Fleet had come to our rescue we could have gotten him the medical attention he needed to save him. Those images still bother me today. Those efforts were exhausting and | asked to go outside for some fresh air because the air inside was at this point very stale. While | was outside catching my breath, CT1 Carpenter came by and detailed me to the fantail to be the phone talker since our previous phone talker had been wounded and was now at a casualty collection station on the Mess deck. Needless to say, | was scared to death. | followed his orders and took up my assignment as the phone talker on the fantail. | could see the 3 PT boats on the horizon and reported that to the bridge. | then reported an unidentified aircraft approaching from the starboard. At about that same time, | then saw and reported the wakes of the 3 PT boats which meant they were again heading in our direction. As | looked around the fantail, | realized there was little protection available if | was taken under fire. My memory for whatever reason is either blank or hazy at best for various. periods over the next several hours and days. We all did whatever we were capable of doing to help wherever we could until we got some help from somewhere. | was busy comforting injured shipmates on the Mess decks, cleaning numerous areas of the ship where our fallen sailor's remains needed to be either gathered or cleaned away. We only had One doctor and two corpsmen so anything anyone else could do to assist with the triage and comforting was a definite help. However, the lasting memories of the pain and suffering that those men went through never goes away. The Day after the attack, 6" Fleet assets finally arrived to assist with the repair efforts and to med-evacuate the most seriously wounded crew members. Those of us who were considered both walking wounded and essential personnel would remain on board because we were still needed to perform “recovery operations” once we got into port in Malta. Itwasn't until after the seriously wounded had been med-evacuated off the ship that the rest of us wounded crew members were finally called to sick bay for a physical examination. | think this was maybe 3 or 4 days after the attack but | can't be sure. | know | still had the same clothes on from the day of the attack so everything was blood soaked and torn. When | stripped for the exam, | think they documented that | had a concussion from when | struck my head on the overhead when the torpedo hit the starboard hull directly below where | was sitting. | had multiple cuts and abrasions onboth hands and arms. | also had gashes on my thigh which were sutured. | did receive a Purple Heart Award as a result of the injuries | received. That ceremony was in a closed door private setting because this wasn't something our Government wanted out in the public even to this day which is probably why I'm having to try to justify my claim now. | was asked at the time | was being examined how | got my injuries and | couldn't explain it then but I suspect it was probably during the torpedo explosion when all the equipment was being jettisoned from the ecuipment racks and just thrown everywhere. We spent most of our transit time to Malta ensuring that the ship was seaworthy enough to make the trip and conducting topside clean-up operations to clean away as much of the blood and debris as we could prior to entering port. Once we arrived in Malta we would then be charged with going down into the Research Spaces for the gruesome job of body recovery and operations area sanitation procedures before we could allow Malta Shipyard Repair personnel onboard to begin repairs. I'm sure that keeping us busy helped to keep our minds off what we had been through but what we were about to go through was something you couldn't prepare for. | volunteered to be on the first recovery team to go down into the previously flooded compartment because | needed to know what happened to my buddy Bob Eisenberg He was due to get out of the Navy in August after completing his four-year enlistment and was just two months away from reaching that goal when his life was taken from him. As a 23 year, old Jewish man with his whole life ahead of him, how was | going to explain what happened to his family. That has been a very serious problem for me for 50 years because the Navy never let me escort his body back home and I was never able to contact his family until two years ago when | finally made contact with his nephew Tim through our Liberty Veteran's Association. | wanted to be able to tell his family that Bob had not suffered that he died instantly but never had that opportunity because the Navy didn't give me the chance. The recovery operation started with Ron Kukal and | and a couple other sailors with clearance going into the darkened research spaces to begin our search. As we descended the ladder we were scared to death with the sight of a corpse suspended from the overhead immediately to our right. That is another image that wakes me up nights and keeps me awake. We had to lower his body into a body bag and tag it for removal and continue our recovery operations. We scanned the area with battle lanterns and | soon discovered Bob's body aying amongst the debris in the P&R spaces to our right. He had a six-inch shrapnel wound in his chest which let me know that he had died instantly. | was recently abe to let Bob's nephew Tim know a little more about Bob since Tim never really knew him. Every time | have an exchange with Bob's family now it tears me apart because Bob never got to live the life he fought for. Even though | have finally been able to make contact with his nephew, unfortunately, his Mom, Dad, and sister have all since passec away.For the next several days we recovered all 25 of our fallen crew members along with their missing body parts. These were men who were in the flooded compartments that were sealed up after the torpedo attack so their remains were oil soaked, sea water soaked, and generally bloated to the point of disfigurement. Again, we had to try and identify them and tag them as best we could so that we could get them up and out of the area. We bagged what we could with the person we thought it belonged to and tagged everything. Many of the pieces were stuck to pieces of equipment and had to be pried out of it and tagged. Think about that for a minute and think about how that image might hang with you over the years. Those pieces of body parts are friends that you worked with and served with yesterday and now you are scooping them up and putting them in a bag to send back home. | can't tell you how much it hurts me to be typing this but for you to have to put a percentage of disability on it is your task not mine. I'm no longer working but | do suffer from migraine headaches for which I'm taking daily medication. Those headaches are very debilitating and when they occur | am for the most part at their mercy. If you have never had one then you can't even imagine what | am talking about but trust me when | say that you are not able to perform even the simplest of tasks. | have been on a daily migraine medication treatment plan for the past two plus years and last year had the daily medication changed. The new medication seems to reduce the frequency of the migraines and the severity of them. | still have them very often but I'm able to cope with them better than | have been in the past. | have been seeing a VA counselor and participating in a Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) program for the past several months. This is the first such program that | have subjected myself to. The first several sessions much like this task were very stressful because both have required me to recount episodes in my life that I have been purposely avoiding. Partly because | was told to never talk about it and partly because it is still a very painful part of my life that | hope | never to have to go through again. This information was not presented to the previous VA compensation hearing board because | had no idea what was happening and didn't even know that I was required to submit anything, | honestly was that naive to think that | would be asked at the hearing to “tell” what you are reading now. | apologize for my ignorance but 50 years of silence and my age probably have a lot to do with that. Respectfully Submitted, Larry Lloyd Bowen, (093-38-7652) USS Liberty (Survivor)