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Re: USS Pueblo - POW Stories

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: January 30, 2003

"Prisoner-of-war stories
By Neil Zolot / Correspondent

On Jan. 23, 1968, the Navy spy ship Pueblo was attacked and captured off the North Korean coast. Almost 35 later, Cmdr. Lloyd "Pete" Bucher, skipper of the Pueblo, spoke of his experience at the Marblehead High School auditorium.

Bucher is now 75 and in less-than-perfect health. Nevertheless, before an audience of 80 people last Thursday, he was often riveting as he told the story of his mission and its aftermath, from its conception as a Cold War measure through the North Korean attack and the crew's horrific treatment in captivity. Thursday night's community forum was Bucher's second appearance at the high school of the day. He had spoken earlier to a group of students.

The Pueblo was a World War II cargo ship and Bucher's first command. He said the 177-foot vessel was a "sorry-looking ship" when he first saw it. Masquerading as a cargo ship, the Pueblo was armed only with machine guns and only an oil drum to burn documents. Its mission was so secret, Bucher was not able to make use of normal channels for support.

"I had nobody in the Navy I could ask for assistance like you do in the normal Navy," he said. "It was the nature of our mission. They had no idea of the Pueblo or what we were doing."

Totally outgunned, Bucher surrendered the Pueblo to his attackers rather than be killed. Suddenly, the "Pueblo Incident" was international news.

"They had no choice," said former Congressman Nick Mavroules, who attended Bucher's talk. "You can't fight gunboats or torpedoes with machine guns."

No military support was forthcoming from the United States.

"I was told by every commander that things would happen rapidly, but nothing ever happened," Bucher said.

Even though no military action was taken, ships were deployed to the area, and Bucher remembers the North Koreans being "scared to death this country would retaliate."

Bucher and his crew of 82, one of whom died from gunshot wounds, were subject to inhuman treatment by their captors for 11 months, he recalled.

"I couldn't believe they would do that to a human being," he said of the treatment, his voice often broken by emotion. "I'm sorry it cracks me up to talk about this stuff, but you ought to have the full flavor."

Bucher's crew was often defiant despite the lack of support from home.

"You can't make a little thing like being disappointed take you out of the ball game," he said.

The most famous act of defiance was seen in a photograph with the crew making an obscene gesture, which they told the North Koreans was the Hawaiian Good Luck Sign. The daily beatings and deprivations grew more severe when the true meaning of the gesture was discovered.

Bucher himself was wounded.

"Not so badly I couldn't survive, but it was distracting," he remembered. "I had so many things to do."

Eventually, he signed a confession and instructed his crew do so the same.

"I had mixed emotions about signing but thought it was the right thing to do," he said. "I wasn't going to be an instigator in the death of my crew. I told them to sign and said I'd take responsibility for those actions."

The United States government also signed an agreement with North Korea admitting guilt to ensure the release of the crew. The Pueblo, however, remains in North Korea.

For all their trouble, Bucher and his crew were not interrogated on intelligence.

"We were not asked for intelligence information," he said. "They didn't want that. All they were interested in was propaganda and to embarrass this country and they succeeded, I think."

The story doesn't end there, however. Upon his return to the United States, Bucher was subject to accusations of failure and the crew designated as detainees rather than prisoners of war. As such, they were denied medals.

"They were not given the heroes' welcome they deserved," said WBZ-TV reporter Dan Rea, a personal friend of Bucher's who spoke briefly before the commander.

Promises made to Bucher were denied.

"I believe on that day in 1968 a lot of Navy careers ended and a lot of people had it out for Pete Bucher," said Rea.

"The reason nothing was done for us is because of some people's expectations for jobs they'd have," Bucher agreed. "The Pueblo Incident ruined a lot of that."

Yet he added, "We're all human and make mistakes."

One man who helped change things was Mavroules. Heading up a Congressional investigation on the Pueblo Incident in 1986, he helped convince the Navy to classify the Pueblo men as prisoners of war.

"After extended debate, they saw perhaps we were right," he said. Rea called Mavroules a hero for his action. Bucher said he was "my favorite politician of all time."

Bucher did not talk about the present crisis with North Korea, except to say their government is unpredictable and that the people live in "barbaric isolation." Rea was more direct, relating the barbarity of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to his father Kim Il Sung, who led North Korea in 1968.

The Pueblo Incident also made an impression on VFW Commander and Selectman Harry Christensen, who missed Bucher's talk on Thursday night but spent time with him the night before. In 1968, Christensen was a tank commander in Vietnam.

"We were told the North Koreans had taken an American vessel and told to expect an attack by the North Vietnamese, and sure enough it came," he said.

Christensen was wounded in the attack and followed the Pueblo story from a hospital bed for the next nine months. He called Bucher a "patriot and a true son of the country."

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