It would have been the perfect day to shoot a recruiting video. Until 2 o'clock, that is.

A state-of-the art intelligence ship. Calm seas. Sunny skies, warm enough for sailors to sunbathe on deck.

Oh, sure, there was a war going on nearby -- historians would later call it the Six-Day War -- but the crew of the USS Liberty, then stationed in international waters off the Sinai Peninsula, wasn't all that concerned.

With just four 50-caliber machine guns as protection, they certainly didn't want to engage an enemy.

And even if Egypt, which was engaged in war with Israel, should want to attack the ship, the Israeli air force would certainly protect them. And jets from the Saratoga were just minutes away, too.

Bob Scarborough, a cryptanalyst whose job was to monitor radio traffic between Russian ships -- the Cold War had yet to thaw -- was below deck that afternoon. He hadn't been top side all morning.

But he knew that Israeli reconnaissance planes had been buzzing the ship for hours. Pilots and ship's crew even waved to each other.

It was just another long day at sea for the 21-year-old enlisted man from Cincinnati.

Then, inexplicably, at 2 p.m., unmarked Israeli aircraft began attacking the ship.

The Liberty, an elaborate state-of-the art intelligence gathering ship -- "we were the best spy ship in the Navy," says Scarborough, a Columbus resident -- was powerless to react.

"We were barely able to get an SOS off," he said.

For the next 75 minutes, the Liberty was attacked from above... and below.

A torpedo shell, one of five fired by an unmarked torpedo boat, tore a gaping hole in the hull of the Liberty. Reportedly, 821 rocket and machine-gun holes were later counted in the Liberty's hull.

"The explosion killed 25 guys who minutes earlier had been sitting across from me in the sleeping quarters," Scarborough said.

By the end of that afternoon -- June 8, 1967 -- 34 men were dead and 171 wounded, including Scarborough. Only 91 members of a crew of 296 walked, or swam, away unscathed.

"I had to swim out from where I was," recalled Scarborough, who has been a film buyer for Carmike Cinemas for the past 20 years. "Fire was everywhere. I know I had to tread water, hang onto pipes, anything to reach the top." He suffered shrapnel wounds and a severe hearing loss. "But that's nothing compared to what the other guys suffered," he said.

The Liberty, in the 75 minutes it was under fire, was bombed with napalm and shells in addition to the torpedo blast. But it never sank. In fact, the captain was later able to navigate the ship to Malta.

"For 36 years, I haven't been able to put that day behind me," said Scarborough from his downtown office.

But it's not the attack that haunts him.

It's the fact that he and the other survivors think that Israel's claim that the bombing of the Liberty was a case of mistaken identity, is a joke.

"My issue is not so much with the Israelis," said Scarborough, who still suffers from tinnitus, a ringing in the ear, "but with our own government. We covered up the details of that day. We're asking for a full congressional investigation."

Surprisingly, there has never been a complete and comprehensive public congressional investigation, though it is considered the only naval incident of its kind in American history.

The crewmembers are not the only ones trying to keep this 36-year-old event alive. The British Broadcasting Co. recently did an investigative piece on the Liberty bombing. And the History Channel is running a special tonight called "Cover Up: Attack on the USS Liberty."

For years, claims Scarborough, seamen aboard the Liberty were threatened with prison terms and fines if they went public with what had happened that June afternoon.

Jim Ennes, the officer-of-the-deck on the day of the attack and author of the 1980 best-selling "Assault on the Liberty," clearly hopes for a congressional inquiry, though he is clearly disappointed with Congress.

Israel persuaded "the U.S. Congress to accept their version of the attack without even considering the eyewitness accounts of survivors," Ennes told a San Diego newspaper. "That is a first in U.S. history."

The USS Liberty was never in the Navy inventory after the '67 attack. But its crewmembers still get together from time to time, hoping that just once the truth will win out.

"If not, it will continue eating at us until..." He left the sentence uncompleted.

Was the attack on the Liberty simply "friendly fire," as the Israelis allege? Did the U.S. engage in a cover-up of the truth?

"I hope everyone will watch the History Channel program, then decide for themselves," Scarborough said.