Captain William L. McGonagle, 1944-1974

Enlisting in the Navy in January 1944, he was subsequently assigned to the NROTC program and commissioned in 1947.  He served aboard destroyer Frank Knox, and during the Korean War, minesweepers Partridge and Kite.  He participated in sweeping World War II mines from Baltic and North Seas.  After service aboard cruiser Rochester, he commanded fleet tug Mataco, fleet rescue ship Reclaimer, and technical research ship Liberty.  As commanding officer of Liberty (AGTR-5), he was sailing in international waters when attacked without warning by Israeli jet fighter aircraft and motor torpedo boats which inflicted significant casualties among the crew and caused extreme damage to the ship.  Although severely wounded during the first air attack, Captain McGonagle remained at his battle station steadfastly refusing any treatment and calmly continued to exercise firm command of his ship, directing it’s defense, supervising the damage effort and seeing to the care of casualties.  Despite wounds and loss of blood, he remained at his bridge station for seventeen hours, and earned the Medal of Honor.  He subsequently became Commanding Officer (commissioning) of ammunition ship Kilauea and NROTC at University of Oklahoma. His final assignment was at Joint U.S. Military Assistance, Philippines.

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