Below is a picture of Commander Loyd Bucher, the captain of the Pueblo.
The Pueblo was a US intelligence gathering ship sent out first to gather electronic intelligence in the Tsushima Straits about the Soviet navy and later to gather information about North Korean activities. The ship started operations on the 42nd parallel off N. Korea on January 16th of 1968. On 23 January the ship was pursued, ordered to stop for boarding and sprayed by machine guns and a 57 mm cannon on a North Korean sub chaser. The Pueblo had one machine gun as armament and in the waters off N. Korea it was frozen from the cold and would have taken a half hour to be able to fire. By that time there were Korean torpedo boats ready to sink the ship.
Commander Bucher alerted Naval Security Group in Japan and the US seventh fleet asking for help in fending off the Koreans. He had been promised air cover by the Fifth Air Force in Japan and by the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier. The 5th air force had not one aircraft on alert for any necessary assistance to Pueblo. The air force said that it would take 2-3 hours to get an aircraft into the air. I have to wonder just how effective that was? The Enterprise was 510 miles south of Pueblo with 4 of their F-4 aircraft on alert, sitting on the catapults, but they were equipped with air to air combat weapons to protect from Korean or Soviet air intrusions. The Enterprise stated it would take 1.5 hours to rearm for surface attack weapons. I am shocked by that. My own navy not prepared to supply promised support. They had 4 planes as ready cap, but none for the Pueblo. Three F-4's with missiles sounds to me like enough to engage incoming aircraft, but I am not an air boss or a ship's captain. It is sad to me is they were not prepared to give the Pueblo needed air cover. The Pueblo was already under attack, with no promised air cover from either command ready to assist and none was ever sent. The Pueblo was captured, intelligence equipment was taken allowing the Korean and the Soviet command to monitor US navy signals for the next year until the navy changed to different codes and equipment. 82 US navy officers and men were captured, tortured and held by N. Korea until December of 1968. The ship is still in N.Korea and is a tourist attraction for people there.
I did not know about the Enterprise being so close to the attack at that time until just days ago when I started brushing up my memory of facts to write this post. Here's a fact that has not been mentioned: We on the Kitty Hawk were 2000 miles away off the coast of Vietnam. I remember hearing the captain on the PA system telling us we were leaving the line and heading to N. Korea. We steamed for 2 days in that direction. I suppose we were being sent to back up the Enterprise should hostilities accelerate, but why the devil they didn't have combat air patrol aircraft ready to defend the Pueblo which was operating in dangerous waters, I cannot comprehend that inaction. Those waters are dangerous this very day and that has been proven many times since 1968. I never worried about the possible danger of being attacked by N. Korean ships and planes; my concern was I knew it was damn cold up there and we would likely be shoveling snow and ice off the flight deck, after months of operating off Vietnam in stifling heat and the thought of being on an icy slippery deck 80 feet above severely cold water was not a pleasant thought. After 2 days of steaming toward N. Korea we were turned around and sent back to Vietnam. The joint chiefs of staff wanted to punish N.Korea, but with the Tet offensive going on in Vietnam the president did not want to get into another war.
USS Pueblo Incident
Copyright Bill Weber 2006-2019 and beyond.
Commander Bucher alerted Naval Security Group in Japan and the US seventh fleet asking for help in fending off the Koreans. He had been promised air cover by the Fifth Air Force in Japan and by the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier. The 5th air force had not one aircraft on alert for any necessary assistance to Pueblo. The air force said that it would take 2-3 hours to get an aircraft into the air. I have to wonder just how effective that was? The Enterprise was 510 miles south of Pueblo with 4 of their F-4 aircraft on alert, sitting on the catapults, but they were equipped with air to air combat weapons to protect from Korean or Soviet air intrusions. The Enterprise stated it would take 1.5 hours to rearm for surface attack weapons. I am shocked by that. My own navy not prepared to supply promised support. They had 4 planes as ready cap, but none for the Pueblo. Three F-4's with missiles sounds to me like enough to engage incoming aircraft, but I am not an air boss or a ship's captain. It is sad to me is they were not prepared to give the Pueblo needed air cover. The Pueblo was already under attack, with no promised air cover from either command ready to assist and none was ever sent. The Pueblo was captured, intelligence equipment was taken allowing the Korean and the Soviet command to monitor US navy signals for the next year until the navy changed to different codes and equipment. 82 US navy officers and men were captured, tortured and held by N. Korea until December of 1968. The ship is still in N.Korea and is a tourist attraction for people there.
I did not know about the Enterprise being so close to the attack at that time until just days ago when I started brushing up my memory of facts to write this post. Here's a fact that has not been mentioned: We on the Kitty Hawk were 2000 miles away off the coast of Vietnam. I remember hearing the captain on the PA system telling us we were leaving the line and heading to N. Korea. We steamed for 2 days in that direction. I suppose we were being sent to back up the Enterprise should hostilities accelerate, but why the devil they didn't have combat air patrol aircraft ready to defend the Pueblo which was operating in dangerous waters, I cannot comprehend that inaction. Those waters are dangerous this very day and that has been proven many times since 1968. I never worried about the possible danger of being attacked by N. Korean ships and planes; my concern was I knew it was damn cold up there and we would likely be shoveling snow and ice off the flight deck, after months of operating off Vietnam in stifling heat and the thought of being on an icy slippery deck 80 feet above severely cold water was not a pleasant thought. After 2 days of steaming toward N. Korea we were turned around and sent back to Vietnam. The joint chiefs of staff wanted to punish N.Korea, but with the Tet offensive going on in Vietnam the president did not want to get into another war.
USS Pueblo Incident
Copyright Bill Weber 2006-2019 and beyond.
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