Posted on 01/23/2006 11:53:34 AM PST by JZelle
An international incident 38 years ago this month remains shrouded in mystery. On the bitterly cold morning of Jan. 23, 1968, an American intelligence vessel, USS Pueblo, was operating in international waters off the coast of North Korea. It was surrounded by four North Korean patrol boats, with two MiG aircraft flying overhead. The boats ordered the Pueblo to stop and let the North Koreans board. The order was refused. The Pueblo headed further out to sea. The North Korean boats immediately opened fire. Armed with only a 50-caliber gun secured from the freezing temperatures by a tarp, the Pueblo was unable to fight back.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
"The Blues Image song Mystery Ship was about that incident and I always wondered if one of those boys was on the Pueblo or another such ship or A/C. I still play that asong when I get nostalgic ."
Looks like there's a lot of theories about the meaning of this song, interesting reading:
http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=00CgZG
Ask LBJ and McNamara. While you are at it, ask Jimmy Carter why he didn't retaliate when the Iranians took DIPLOMATS and embassy employees as hostages. That was also an act of war and the Iranians are still at war with the US. The end to that one might be in sight, however.
I was working that evening at Camp Fuchinobe, just up the road from Kami Seya. My buddy and I were pretty junior, and as soon as the word hit the wire, there were brass and civilian big shots coming out of the woodwork. A CTTC I knew from KS was scheduled to make that cruise, but he switched with a pal of his. Another guy I knew was scheduled for that cruise and the Navy was flying him in from Bremerhaven. The plane broke down and he didn't get to Atsugi until after Pueblo had sailed. They put him on a small bird to Sasebo, but by the time this guy got there, she'd already sailed. The wife of one of my work mates was working at the Credit Union at NAS Atsugi, and she was put in charge of all the "hostile detention" accounts.
I felt I recognized that song's origin the first time I heard it. "...watching those old raindrops fall" - raindrops were(are?) radarscreen blips. There were 73 on the Pueblo but it went out of San Diego rather than San Francisco. Someone listening to that song who did not have the NSA/ASA/AFSA/USNSA experience could well think it is allegory or describes something in the real world but would not have the background to recognize the Pueblo.
If the mission was as it looked on the surface then the ops can be faulted for not destroying the equipment. If Pueblo was like other such units, at least like the RC135s in the AF, there were preplaced thermite charges that would have reduced the equipment to slag and cinders quickly if deployed.The failure to do that gave rise to suspicions that Pueblo was meant to be captured- see #31.
I was hoping to find out why we didn't firebomb N. Korea when they refused to let this ship go.
I was stationed as a cop at Osan (actually guarding the alert birds when the attack took place) when all this went down. We asked the same question. After about 2 weeks we realized nothing was going to happen, morale went right in the toilet.
Ax. You ought to write for Snoopy.
Yong-Son command center was thusly wired.
I forget which books I've read on the Pueblo, but I do remember they didn't change my mind about making a show of resistance. Ritual and face saving is important in military matters, the ship could not resist effectively but it could make a statement and go with some honor. I would be surprised if most American sailors would not prefer to have some shred of dignity to cling to in this incident, the captain shamed his crew, his navy, and his country.
Unless the Pueblo actually did perform its mission successfully. See reply #31
The Pueblo crew size was 83, not 73.
http://www.usspueblo.org/
That would be great if it is true, but we have to work with the story we know.
73 men sailed off from that San Francisco Bay... ...Ride captain ride upon your mystery ship...
My son was born that year in San Jose hospital.
>We should have destroyed the ship after the NKs took it.
I don't see how our men could have destroyed the ship after it was in possession of the N. Koreans.
From the air or from under the sea. Either could've been accomplished in a few hours. We also should have hit Tehran 12 hours after the ragheads took our citizens hostage. A half day seems like a reasonable amount of time to me.
She was no "Lady Bird". She was a bitch dog.
Shove it! Admiral Zumalt was a freak. The bell-bottom stuff WAS trivia. So was much of his agendas.
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