Posted on 07/27/2018 6:51:26 AM PDT by daniel1212
USS Pueblo (AGER-2) is a Banner-class environmental research ship, attached to Navy intelligence as a spy ship, which was attacked and captured by North Korean forces on 23 January 1968, in what is known today as the "Pueblo incident" or alternatively, as the "Pueblo crisis". ..
Pueblo, still held by North Korea today, officially remains a commissioned vessel of the United States Navy.[3] Since early 2013, the ship has been moored along the Potong River in Pyongyang, and used there as a museum ship at the Pyongyang Victorious War Museum.[4] Pueblo is the only ship of the U.S. Navy still on the commissioned roster currently being held captive.[5] ...
On 5 January 1968, Pueblo left U.S. Navy base Yokosuka, Japan, in transit to the U.S. naval base at Sasebo, Japan; from there she left on 11 January 1968, headed northward through the Tsushima Strait into the Sea of Japan. She left with specific orders to intercept and conduct surveillance of Soviet Navy activity in the Tsushima Strait and to gather signal and electronic intelligence from North Korea.[8]...
According to the American account, the following day, 23 January, Pueblo was approached by a submarine chaser and her nationality was challenged; Pueblo responded by raising the U.S. flag. The North Korean vessel then ordered Pueblo to stand down or be fired upon. Pueblo attempted to maneuver away, but was considerably slower than the submarine chaser. Several warning shots were fired. Additionally, three torpedo boats appeared on the horizon and then joined in the chase and subsequent attack.[11]
The attackers were soon joined by two MiG-21 fighters. A fourth torpedo boat and a second submarine chaser appeared on the horizon a short time later. The ammunition on Pueblo was stored belowdecks, and her machine guns were wrapped in cold weather tarpaulins. The machine guns were unmanned, and no attempt was made to man them....
The North Korean vessels attempted to board Pueblo, but she was maneuvered to prevent this for over two hours. A submarine chaser then opened fire with a 57 mm cannon, killing one member of the crew. The smaller vessels fired machine guns into Pueblo, which then signaled compliance and began destroying sensitive material. The volume of material on board was so great that it was impossible to destroy it all...
Pueblo followed the North Korean vessels as ordered, but then stopped immediately outside North Korean waters. She was again fired upon, and a sailor, fireman Duane Hodges, was killed. The ship was finally boarded at 05:55 UTC (2:55 pm local)[13] by men from a torpedo boat and a submarine chaser. Crew members had their hands tied and were blindfolded, beaten, and prodded with bayonets.
Radio contact between Pueblo and the Naval Security Group in Kamiseya, Japan, had been ongoing during the incident. As a result, Seventh Fleet command was fully aware of Pueblo's situation. Air cover was promised but never arrived. The Fifth Air Force had no aircraft on strip alert, and estimated a two to three-hour delay in launching aircraft. USS Enterprise was located 510 nautical miles (940 km) south of Pueblo, yet her four F-4B aircraft on alert were not equipped for an air-to-surface engagement. Enterprise's captain estimated that 1.5 hours (90 minutes) were required to get the converted aircraft into the air.[11]
Pueblo was taken into port at Wonsan and the crew was moved twice to prisoner of war (POW) camps. The crew reported upon release that they were starved and regularly tortured while in North Korean custody. This treatment allegedly turned worse[22] when the North Koreans realized that crewmen were secretly giving them "the finger" in staged propaganda photos.[23]
Commander Lloyd M. Bucher was psychologically tortured, such as being put through a mock firing squad in an effort to make him confess. Eventually the North Koreans threatened to execute his men in front of him, and Bucher relented and agreed to "confess to his and the crew's transgression." Bucher wrote the confession since a "confession" by definition needed to be written by the confessor himself. They verified the meaning of what he wrote, but failed to catch the pun when he said "We paean the DPRK [North Korea]. We paean their great leader Kim Il Sung".[24][25] (Bucher pronounced "paean" as "pee on.")[26]
Negotiations for the release of the crew took place at Panmunjom. At the same time, U.S. officials were concerned with conciliating the South Koreans, who expressed discontent about being left out of the negotiations..
Ericson and George Newman, the Deputy Chief of Mission in Seoul, wrote a telegram for the State Department in February 1968, predicting how the negotiations would play out:
What we said in effect was this: If you are going to do this thing at Panmunjom, and if your sole objective is to get the crew back, you will be playing into North Korea's hands and the negotiations will follow a clear and inevitable path. You are going to be asked to sign a document that the North Koreans will have drafted. They will brook no changes. It will set forth their point of view and require you to confess to everything they accuse you of... If you allow them to, they will take as much time as they feel they need to squeeze every damn thing they can get out of this situation in terms of their propaganda goals, and they will try to exploit this situation to drive a wedge between the U.S. and the ROK. Then when they feel they have accomplished all they can, and when we have agreed to sign their document of confession and apology, they will return the crew. They will not return the ship. This is the way it is going to be because this is the way it has always been.[27]
Following an apology, a written admission by the U.S. that Pueblo had been spying, and an assurance that the U.S. would not spy in the future, the North Korean government decided to release the 82 remaining crew members [after 11-months], although the written apology was preceded by an oral statement that it was done only to secure the release.[28]
Reverse engineering of communications devices on Pueblo allowed the North Koreans to share knowledge with the Soviet Union that led to the replication of those communications devices. This allowed the two nations access to the US Navy's communication systems until the late 1980s when the US Navy revised those systems. The seizure of Pueblo followed soon after US Navy warrant officer John Anthony Walker introduced himself to Soviet authorities, setting up the Walker spy ring. It has been argued that the seizure of Pueblo was executed specifically to capture the encryption devices aboard. Without them, it was difficult for the Soviets to make full use of Walker's information.[33][34][35]
Documents released from National Archives of Romania suggest it was the Chinese rather than the Soviets who actively encouraged the reopening of hostilities in Korea during 1968, promising North Korea vast material support should hostilities in Korea resume.[21] Together with Blue House Raid, the Pueblo incident turned out to be part of an increasing divergence between the Soviet leadership and North Korea. Fostering a resumption of hostilities in Korea, allegedly, was seen in Beijing as a way to mend relations between North Korea and China, and pull North Korea back in the Chinese sphere of influence in the context of the Sino-Soviet split. After the (then secret) diplomatic efforts of the Soviets to have the American crew released fell on deaf ears in Pyongyang, Leonid Brezhnev publicly denounced North Korea's actions at the 8th plenary session of the 23rd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.[21] In contrast, the Chinese (state controlled) press published declarations supportive of North Korea's actions in the Pueblo incident.[36]
Furthermore, Soviet archives reveal that the Soviet leadership was particularly displeased that North Korean leader Kim Il-sung had contradicted the assurances he previously gave Moscow that he would avoid a military escalation in Korea. Previously secret documents suggest the Soviets were surprised by the Pueblo incident, first learning of it in the press. The same documents reveal that the North Koreans also kept the Soviets completely in the dark regarding ongoing negotiations with the Americans for the crew's release, which was another bone of contention.
...Brezhnev, the Soviet leader made it clear that they were not willing to go to war with the United States, but agreed to an increase in subsidies for North Korea, which did happen in subsequent years.[38]:
The seizure of the U.S. Navy ship and her 83 crew members, one of whom was killed in the attack, came less than a week after President Lyndon B. Johnson's State of the Union address to the United States Congress, a week before the start of the Tet Offensive in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War, and three days after 31 men of North Korea's KPA Unit 124 had crossed the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and killed 26 South Koreans in an attempt to attack the South Korean Blue House (executive mansion) in the capital Seoul.
In the late 1990s the Clinton Administration attempted to negotiate with North Korea. At the time, the Koreans were in the process of constructing a nuclear reactor. It would be capable of producing nuclear weapons grade plutonium. The US government entered an agreement that stated in essence, if the Koreans stopped work on the reactor, the US along with some EU nations would provide them with a new light water reactor plus 500,000 tons per year of heavy fuel oil. The fuel oil to be used in the Korean oil fired power plants. US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited Pyongyang and met with Kim Jong Il. During the course of those "negotiations" the North Koreans felt they would be able to move USS PUEBLO from Wonsan on Korea's east coast to the Taedong River at Pyongyang on the west coast. This was a voyage of over 1000 nautical miles, all in INTERNATIONAL WATERS.
The move of the ship from Wonsan to Pyongyang was handled by Secretary of Defense William J. Perry who had been appointed by President Clinton his North Korea Policy Coordinator. In that role he was in favor of negotiation and appeasement. He was instrumental in arranging Secretary Albright’s visit to NK.
He allowed the ship relocation from East to West and told the US Navy - hands off.
btw, when the crew were captured, only a couple of them were Christians. When they came out, nearly all were.
One night the Christians got them all to pray to forgive their captors.
Meanwhile, members of the Johnson administration, knowing they were going out of office, and suddenly burdened that they needed to clean up the Pueblo business, finally decided to do the diplomatically unthinkable, and apologize to N. Korea. With that, the Norks agreed to release the captives.
The day after the prayer, came the announcement they were to be released.
Much goes on behind the scenes that we do not see.
wonder why we never took out the Pueblo ?
What i don’t understand is, a Marine Air Station was\is at Iwakuni Japan and was less than 500 miles away. Crickets chirped.
Since that picture was taken, the Pueblo has been moved about two miles next to some museum to the “greatness” of the North Korean military. IIRC, it is now in a dry dock to keep the hull from rotting. Looking at Google Earth, for the life of me, I can’t see how they got her to her new location.
Commander Lloyd M. Bucher was psychologically tortured, such as being put through a mock firing squad in an effort to make him confess. Eventually the North Koreans threatened to execute his men in front of him, and Bucher relented and agreed to “confess”.
Father was in Naval Intel at the time and was sent to SOKO for 18 months on incident.
Only thing he said about it was Bucher should of taken his “suicide pill”.
A nation not under God is a nation that is gone under, or relative to how much it is not the former. Leadership and the character of men is not what it was prior to 1940's, .
And gone under is not water:The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. (Psalms 9:17)
Praise God if true, but documentation?
They didn’t give up without a fight. I believe that the one casualty was the sailor trying to man the one 50 caliber machine gun in an exposed position. The next person to the gun would have experienced the same fate.
The really big problem was the lack of a viable defensive plan involving the proactive positioning and use of other military assets. The fleet/intelligence brass put the whole ship out there in a naked position.
Pussification...
I think you're confusing my post with the Pueblo. I was talking about the recent capture of Sailors by Iran's patrol boats. Even if wrong, the next guy mans the 50. It's called warfare.
I will never forget the pathetic, sad, and pitiful faces in the photo of those sailors captured by Iran. They may not be hardened trained grunts, but they take an oath to fight or die against the enemy, even if they inadvertently crossed into Iranian waters. Those pussies made me so ashamed of my Navy.
Then there are the Ferguson and McCain that couldn't avoid a slow freighter with all it's Aegis electronics. I'm glad to see CinCPacFleet busting them all, especially the female OOD and the female CIC commander who had a pissing contest between each other on the Ferguson as described in the final Navy report. Yet to see the McCain final report. However, sounds like both had poor training - Captain's and EO's fault.
As much as I believe women can contribute to the Armed Forces, get them out of combat units/ships. Are they on submarines as yet? I know that was the plan during Obama. If so, stupid is as stupid does. How many times do you think an attack sub or Trident will have to surface to unload pregnant women? I saw it many times on my surface ships from 75-86.
Mattis should send women back to admin/logistics jobs and tell the feminists to FO. BTW, women also wash out and also crash more aircraft than men, according to percentages.
Now the PTB are talking about including women in SEAL training. It took how many female applicants to pass Ranger training? Oh right, 2 after going through it twice - with a lower bar for PT. Pfft.
Guilty as charged. Thank you for your patience and insight.
BTW, I just read there are more than 2 women who are now badge wearing Rangers. While Ranger training is really tough, the Army is leading the way to reduce quals. If the SEAL's ever do that, then it's time to hire more combat experienced civilians. We already have many around the world and especially in Aftganiscrap.
Personally, I don't believe the SEAL's will ever lower their quals. They are the standard of warriors around the world. Just "Hell Week" would make any woman "ring out".
Too bad our surface fleet have become so incompetent. Still, those responsible for those needless collisions are being held responsible. Fire them all, and Court Martial those who deserve it. Again, I wonder what's happening with our subs. Anyone here know?
Lowering standards is not a good idea. I just read the book “Horse Soldiers” and was very impressed with the fact that the men involved knew how to fight a war with a mixture of primitive and very advanced weapons and personnel. The special forces skill-set is amazing.
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