I have wondered what we would do with the Pueblo if we ever got her back. Would she wind up a museum ship or would she be destroyed? If we get her back, she should be kept as a museum ship. I’d love to see her.
I think we should let her rest on the ocean floor.
The Pueblo Incident was not a good one for our country in any way.
We dropped the ball, we put our men in a position to fail, we underestimated an enemy, we were incompetent and weak in our response...we let them get tortured and starved for a year, then shamed them and raked them over the coals when they finally came home.
My mother, a career naval wife, had a degree of scorn for those protecting “The Naval Service”. She didn’t like the concept of someone falling on their sword and taking one for the team to protect the Navy when it was unjust.
When she talked of this, her Italian-Armenian eyes would flash very black as she spoke. Her voice would take on a very bitter and harsh edge.
My father would sit across the table, smoking his cigarette and drinking his coffee, listening silently. I never asked him about it, but the distinct impression I clearly got in his body language was “That is the way it is. You do it because you are a naval officer. It isn’t even worthy of discussion.”
My mom was a good Navy wife, but she didn’t like being that way sometimes. I imagine there were times when she would pigeonhole one of my dad’s superiors at some alcohol and tobacco fueled party (of which there were many in those days at places outside of CONUS during the Vietnam war) where she would be giving the guy a piece of her mind, while my dad, drink in one hand and cigarette in the other, would be watching her warily with an air of resignation.
There were times I think she put him in difficult spots.
Anyway, I don’t think she should be a museum...I have always felt it was better to see an old ship sunk, rather than cut up for timbers or razor blades. Kind of the equivalent of planting a person six feet under when they die.
I could see CDR Bucher with moist eyes, in his blues, giving her a salute when she went down. She was a tub and a rust-bucket, but she was a ship, and she was his.