The USS Pueblo was a signals intelligence ship captured by the North Koreans on 23 January 1968 by forces of the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea while operating in international waters. Her CO surrendered the ship after the loss of one sailor killed and ten wounded, but – significantly, to those in the sea service – without having fired a shot in return.
Her crew was tortured and starved for 11 months before their captain signed a confession of wrong-doing: While the NORKS had failed to beat CDR Lloyd Blucher into personal submission, they finally gained his “acquiescence” – they missed the near-homonym “pee-on” in his non-idiomatic use of the phrase “we paean the North Korean state” – by threatening to shoot one of his crewman. They were released to walk across the “Bridge of No Return,” after which the confession was retracted by the US government.
Almost forty years later, a trial judge in New York has awarded $68 million to members of her crew:
The judge, Henry H. Kennedy Jr. of Federal District Court, issued the judgment against North Korea on Tuesday.
North Korea did not respond to the lawsuit, which accused it of kidnapping, imprisonment and torture. Four former crewmen of the Pueblo filed the suit in 2006.
Good luck collecting on that.
Forty years later Pueblo – still in US commission – sits pier side at Pyongyang, North Korea, a tourist attraction and “paean” to the Kim dynasty. Which is another story entirely.
I’ve always thought that scuttling her at that pier would make a wonderful graduation exercise for a SEAL class. It’s probably a good thing I’m not in charge.
We had air assets at that time that arrived too late to act in international waters, but should have been used anyway.
I would not risk a SEAL to scuttle that ship, but a cruise missile would be perfect for the job and send a worthwhile message even today.
There may have been political elements in play that I was not aware of; but I’ll never understand why, after 11 months in captivity, there were no attempts made to free the officers and men of the Pueblo.
They didn’t fire a shot because they were unarmed (except for a few firearms.) I had a brief tour aboard her in Sasebo a couple of years before her capture. The ship I was a crewman of at the time was also unarmed until about 1965, when we received two Ma Deuces – boy, that made us feel so much better.
My understanding was that they had deck-mounted MMGs, but that they were tarped up for winter and the ammo RSL was belowdecks. I was only 7 at the time, but my dear ol’ da – Old Navy before that was a clothing brand – said that Blucher ought to have fired one shot in the air before striking. That no Navy vessel had ever before been surrendered without firing a shot.
Symbolism, maybe, but symbols have meaning and he was long on tradition, that old man.
If volunteers were called for, I’m sure almost anyone who had been a SEAL would volunteer. You’d have to beat ‘em off with many sticks.
I would settle for a cruise missile as well. Anything to help NK lose face. Lots of it. The SEAL raid would be most effective on that score.
Actually Lex ( warning Pedantic Pecker-Wood moment comming) it’s closer to forty-one years after it happened … the Tet Offensive commenced seven days later…c0ordinated events ?…and we found ourselves up to our ass in a double helping of Commie Alligator sh*t…”serious” liquor fueled “O” Club talk of war with the Norks was just that…obviously we were stretched thin…and the crew of the Pueblo suffered for it… interesting times indeed. Best
HEAR HEAR, Lex. There is no excuse for allowing that ship to sit where it is as it has for all these years….in the same way that there was no excuse, in April ’03, for allowing our intelligence gathering aircraft to sit on a runway in China when they forced it to land. Once the crew was off — end of plane. Do I just think differently?
Hard to say what “should” have happened. I wasn’t there. I did have friends on Cole. Easy to get sucker punched, after all we weren’t at war with them. Symbolic shots in the air, is that all we really want? Either way you slice it, they were boarded, captured, and held in hell for almost a year. They paid for whatever minor crime they committed in spades and then some. As a destroyerman for 22 years, I feel empathy for them, for even after that occurred we really didn’t take physical security of our ships all that seriously. Spent quite a lot of time on CBR and fire fighting, but not so much on repelling boarders. We react to how we are trained.
As I remember, Bucher’s more urgent concern was the destruction of the mountain of classified data onboard, and he knew that any attempt to unmask his guns was going to be unsucessful.
Something to be said for even a modicum of “Staying Power.” It may not compute well on a corporate balance sheeet, but sure can pay off when the pooh hits the rotating blades.
Bucher knew he would be captured or sunk, and I too heard the same sentiments that your dad put forth.
“Whatif” Bucher had the ability to stave off the attack until his mission equipment and documents were completely destroyed?
Thats really all the “Staying Power” he needed.
How much did the compromise of all that SIGINT cost the US, not only in direct dollar terms, but also in lost operational capability anyway?
The Littorals sure have a propensity for being anything but “the least severe environment anticipated”, and conflicts there sure don’t progress in neat “phases”.
Also, if you look like a naval vessel, you should never disregard the possibility of getting shot at (no matter who promises you cover, as was proffered to CDR. Bucher).
I was about two months from going into the Air Force. As I look back at that time, it is a shame they did not have some form of radio controlled self destruct system. Bucher would be required to punch in a code as acceptance of the option. Then after the crew were released, the command would be given to detonate the bomb, I mean Self destruct system. They would be picking up the Pueblo and most of North Korea, somewhere in the middle of China. Be careful of the things you wish, you’re may just get it and then some.
NK would make the worlds best location for a JDAM party.
Sadly, it’d be hard to do much damage in NorK, since 99% are still living in a virtual stone age.
Sigh…
AW1 Tim, In my view, stir up the dust, destroy the Pueblo and ALL of her contents, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
@AW1 Tim
That just makes targeting easier: If it has power it’s either military or goverment.
Chuck Law, the Quartermaster on the Pueblo when she was taken, taught the lecture portion of SERE school when I went through. Thirty years later I discovered he was a neighbor. If you haven’t read A Matter of Accountability: The True Story of the Pueblo Affair, it’s quite a story. $1.66 + s/h on Amazon. He was quite a hero.
B-2.
Full load of 2000-pound JDAMs.
Make the rubble bounce.
To Hell with half-measures. Un-mothball the old Snark intercontinental cruise missile with a 4 megaton hello, strap a Radio shack GPS on it, and send it on it’s way–they’ll never see it coming. (heh)
See, where she is now is onna West Coast of NORK, where she usta be was onna East Coast of NORK.
She was towed around the ENTIRE South Korean Peninsula, in INTERNATIONAL WATERS and we (US’N) did SQUAT.
No wonder them pie-rats in A-frica skeers us.
We couldn’t even send out a re-boarding party to take her back.
As Lex said- symbols have meaning.
Seriously speaking Combat Wombat, I didn’t know that. Pathetic. And I’ll bet that they towed it at the very same time we in the AF over in NATO were spending 1/3rd of our tactical exercise time practicing to prevent another Pueblo-type incident in Northern European waters. Unbelievable!
PS to Combat Wombat.
Most Navy types don’t realize how much time we in the USAF in NATO in those years spent on ship recognition, study of SU/WP naval ship capabilities and practiced tactical attack missions against NATO naval assets–both bombing and ECM–all as a result of the Pueblo and the belated recognition
that if the balloon went up for anything short of nukes we would be doing more than supporting the Army.
Unfortunately looks like the big kids didn’t mind us practicing–but the real deal? What better “practice” for the AF
F-4s then sitting over in Korea than “helping out” a ship under tow and distress?