Re: Pueblo Crew Originally Viewed as Detainees, Not POWs

Date: January 28, 2004

"Commander of Pueblo unbowed by surrender
        
By Jack Williams UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

Former Navy Cmdr. Lloyd M. Bucher, who inspired an enduring loyalty among his crew and survived the stigma of surrendering the spy ship Pueblo to North Korea 36 years ago, has died. He was 76.

Bucher, a Poway resident for more than 30 years who was known by his nickname, "Pete," died late Wednesday at a nursing center.

"He just shut down," said Stuart Russell, who served on the Pueblo and is president of the USS Pueblo Veterans Association. "He had been suffering from emphysema and asbestosis."

The lightly armed Pueblo was attacked and seized Jan. 23, 1968, by North Korean gunboats. The vessel had been in international waters off North Korea, tracking ship activity and messages. One man was killed and 17 were injured.

The Pueblo was the first Navy ship to be surrendered since the War of 1812.

Bucher's restraint in not firing a shot was based on the feeling that his ship was ill-equipped to respond, he later said.

North Korea imprisoned Bucher and 82 others aboard the Pueblo, subjecting them to 11 months of savage treatment. Efforts by the State Department to free them failed for months amid public "Release the Pueblo" campaigns. After forced confessions and an apology from Washington, later repudiated, North Korea freed the crew Dec. 23.

Bucher's controversial decision not to return fire and his failure to destroy classified documents, which were sources of embarrassment to high-ranking Navy officials, led a naval court of inquiry in Coronado to recommend a court-martial.

After an eight-week hearing, Navy Secretary John Chafee overruled the panel's recommendation, saying Bucher and his crew "had suffered enough."

Robert Chicca, a Pueblo crewman, said: "He was criticized for his actions, but of the people who were there (aboard the ship), everyone except one supported him. He had our respect."

James Kell, another Pueblo crew member, said of Bucher: "If it hadn't been for him, a lot of us might not have come back alive. He was concerned for his men, not himself. As bad as we had it, it was double or triple for him. He was stalwart, a rock, the one who inspired us. I've never seen a more charismatic person."

In May 1969, with the Pueblo incident still fresh in the nation's mind, Bucher was assigned to Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey and later to a position in San Diego with the 11th Naval District.

In 1970, his book, "My Story: Bucher," was published by Doubleday.

His executive officer on the Pueblo, Edward R. Murphy Jr., with whom he disagreed on several issues, wrote a rebuttal of sorts in "Second in Command: The Uncensored Account of the Capture of the Spy Ship Pueblo," which was published in 1971.

Murphy said Thursday that he had made his peace with Bucher.

"We later realized we had mutual respect for each other," Murphy said. "If men can accomplish that, they have succeeded."

Bucher retired in 1973.

A TV movie, "Pueblo," starring Hal Holbrook as Bucher, added to his celebrity in 1973. Public acceptance, however, couldn't erase the anguish.

"I don't think he ever overcame it," Russell said. "The scorn heaped upon him by members of the military had an impact on his outlook. He felt that we were sent to do a job that we weren't prepared for."

Twenty years after the Pueblo's seizure, Bucher reflected on his ordeal in an interview with The San Diego Union.
"Bitterness is a description that would never have applied to me," he said. "Disappointment, great disappointment, was my reaction to not having had any help out there. This disappointment survives to this day."

In wake of the Pueblo incident, the Navy took steps to increase the armament of its intelligence ships and to provide them with destruct systems, secret weapons and rapid scuttling devices. It also re-examined such questions as how, where and when intelligence ships should operate and how to improve communications between command-and-control forces.

The beatings from his captivity left lasting effects on Bucher. Repeatedly kicked in the back, he suffered kidney damage and never regained full use of one hip. He developed a blind spot in his right eye. His weight in captivity had plummeted from 170 to 127 pounds, and he lost most of his teeth.

In September 1988, Bucher and his crew were overlooked in a Prisoner of War Day ceremony. The official explanation from the Defense Department was that the Pueblo crew were "detainees," not prisoners.

But in May 1989, a congressional legislative amendment made the Pueblo crew eligible for the medal. Bucher and 64 of the original crew received their medals in San Diego.

Childhood hardships may have helped steel Bucher for the trials to come.

He was adopted at birth and lived with several relatives after his adoptive mother died.

"Between the ages of 7 and 8, I was on my own in Pocatello, Idaho, living out of garbage cans or whatever," he once told a reporter.

Stealing fishhooks from a dime store landed Bucher in reform school at 8. The youngest child there, he soon was released and sent to a Catholic Indian orphanage in Lewiston, Idaho.

Eventually, he made his way to Boys Town in Omaha, Neb., where he excelled in academics and sports. "Boys Town was probably the biggest break of my life," Bucher said.

He went on to the University of Nebraska, where he was a varsity halfback, and into a career in the Navy.

In retirement, Bucher invested considerable effort in an art career. Watercolors became his specialty after a year of study at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. His portraits and paintings of landscapes, birds and ships sold well during the 1980s.

He also presented "What's Right With America" lectures throughout the nation before tiring of the travel.

In 1998, Bucher and his wife, Rose, were instrumental in the reconstruction of a 6-foot marble statue of the archangel Michael at St. Michael's Catholic Church in Poway. The statue, which the Buchers had donated in memory of Rose Bucher's parents in 1974, had been shattered by vandals.

"Our family, the crew members of the Pueblo and Pete's friends and former shipmates will always remember both his love and his leadership," Rose Bucher said in a statement released by a friend Thursday night.

In addition to his wife, survivors include his sons, Mark Bucher and Mike Bucher of Poway; and three grandchildren.

A viewing is scheduled from 4 to 8 p.m. Monday at Poway-Bernardo Mortuary. A Mass will be celebrated at noon Tuesday at St. Michael's Catholic Church, Poway, followed by 2 p.m. services at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery.

Donations are suggested to Father Flanagan's Boys & Girls Town, P.O. Box 2, Boys Town, NE 68010; or Disabled American Veterans, Room LAF-312, 811 Vermont Ave. N.W., Washington, DC 20420.

Jack Williams: (619) 542-4587; jack.williams@uniontrib.com
© 2004 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. "