parker, the us political consul in cairo first.... "the navy was uh preparing to retaliate against egypt for the attack on the liberty, uh, they thought that it was the egyptians who attacked it, they were preparing to to attack egypt in response. it was 2:30 p.m. when three israeli torpedo boats got close to the half-burn to liberty and fired five torpedos at it. one of them hit the middle of the ship and created a huge hole in its starboard side. due to the torpedo attacks, the ship's propulsive forces stopped working and the transmitting systems were totally destroyed. at the same time that us jets armed with nuclear weapons were on the way to cairo. robert mcnamemera, the us defense secretary, contact. the uss america of the sixth fleet so he could deliver another strange order to the commander of the ship. macnemara asked guys to immediately recall the jets which were in route to cairo. early next morning, the uss america, uss davis and uss massi arrived to remove the 34 dead sailors and 174. officers from the burnt down liber