23 January 1968: USS Pueblo – Never Forget
Then:
 
(CIA A-12 Recce mission on 26 January)
Now:
Taedong River, Pyongyang, North Korea ( 38°59’27.83″N x 125°43’32.13″E)
Remember:
Remember:
Read the story here, here or here. A clearly provactive and illegal hijacking on the high seas by the North Koreans – and compounded by inexplicably poor contingency planning on the part of US forces when Pueblo signaled her distress and called for assistance and rescue. None came.
Her continued possession by North Korea is an illegal act and is, for all intents and purposes, the equivalent of an extended middle digit in the face of the US as long as this condition continues. Â
The time has long since come for the return of the Pueblo and the extension of a formal apology and reparations by the North Korean government to the US and the crew and their families of the Pueblo. But we won’t hold our breath in anticipation of that coming to pass in this lifetime…
23 January 1968 – Remember the Pueblo.
I’ve always hoped that if we ever decided to move on N. Korea that we might put a couple of Harpoons into their so-called museum. If we can’t have her back, then they can’t have her either.
Jim;
The bad news is Harpoons have “issues” with “clutter” (read “land”) that close to the intended target….
Sounds like a job for a fine young pilot trained by Neptunus Lex would be a better choice…and definitely not a light blue suiter crew.
someone should steel it back!
Mark’s comment brings up the fact worth noting that in order for the Pueblo to get where she is, she had to transit through international waters in ’99 (she’s on the west coast now, was on the east coast before). We made no attempt to get her back.
Sometime around 1946-47 I served on a USN nucleus crew that was organized to take over several small cargo ships that we were told had been operated by the U.S. Army in the Philippines in the latter part of WWII. We put them in cuising order and ferried them to Guam were I understood some would be sold to another country. I’ve never seen any history of the Pueblo or her type anywhere. Is there anyone out ther who knows. MCPO Art Aragon, USN (Ret)
My late husband Howard Edward Bland was on that ship when it was captured along with 81 proud men who were ready and willing to fight for our country when the Koreans came and captured the ship and crew. There was supposed to be help but none came. Gee were they really just a number to the United States of America who says that they will proudly stand by our men and women in their time of need?
Anyway, I beleive that we should be able to get the ship back and that we should keep it as a memorial to all our Navel personael reminding them just how much our government cares. If not for that then it should be a museum where my grandchildren can go and see where their grandfather was when he was captured. I too would like to get a copy of that Movie “The Pueblo” if anyone knows where I can get a copy I would like to know where, Thanks., Long live the Pueblo and Long live the Lonely Bull.
I was a USAF Weapons Specialist stationed at Pease Air Force Base, near Portsmouth, NH at the time of the Pueblo theft. We maintained six B-52D Stratofortress on nuclear alert, each carrying four, MK-28, 1.2 megaton, thermonuclear weapons (called “Special Weaponsâ€).
At the time of the hijacking, my weapons crew received orders to board a C-130 Hercules, which landed at McDill AFB, Florida where we boarded another weapons crew. We boarded another crew in Mississippi and headed for Travis AFB, California. We were under secret orders and not informed about our final destination. We figured since our travel involved a relatively slow aircraft (C-130 is a 4-engine turboprop as opposed to flying on something like the jet C-141 Starlifter) so the U.S. would have time for negotiations with N. Korea – before the military revealed the thermonuclear sword hidden behind her back. The U.S. did take the Pueblo hijacking quite seriously.
We ended up TDY (temporary duty) on the armpit of the world – Guam, where we sent wave after wave of B-52 missions over Vietnam, called Project Arc Light. Incidentally, each individual B-52D normally carried 108, Mk-82 500-pound bombs, 84 internally and 24 externally. Often the 24 external racks were loaded with 750 pounders.
In June of 1968, my friend was murdered on Guam, which is an unknown story involving the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.
I eventually ended up in Vietnam and experienced the receiving end of a B-52 strike (from a few miles away), which was like an earthquake. I went from working on the largest combat aircraft in the Air Force inventory to the smallest, the 0-1 Bird Dog, 0-2 Cessna Super Skymaster and OV-10 Bronco – we were Forward Air Controllers.
It has been revealed that the Pueblo was hijacked 3 weeks after the Soviets determined that John Walker, USN had in fact provided them with the actual crytologic keys and rotation schedule for the US Navy. He delivered them to the Soviet Embassy in Washington, DC in exchange for something like $3000. The Soviets had everything they needed to eavesdrop on the US Navy except for one of the crypto machines, so they tasked the North Koreans to capture the Pueblo, remove the equipment and send it to Moscow immediately. Walker spied for the Soviets for 18 years before his wife tired of being beaten by him during his drunken sprees and called the FBI to report that he was spying for the Soviets. This is the first that the FBI knew of his activities.
@in_awe
Yet one more reason why I’d like to see that SOB drawn, quartered, hanged and his carcass fed to a pen of pigs…
w/r, SJS