Old Weird Ward
Unless otherwise noted, that which is posted here is opinion, which is protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution. If you don't like my opinions, go somewhere else. Nobody is forcing you to actually read this drivel.
The presumption exists that you can read at all.
That may be a large assumption.
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Saturday, January 31, 2004
- - - - - Commander Lloyd Bucher, USN (Ret) - - - - -
Way back in 1968, the USS Pueblo, an un-armed electronic intelligence ship was grabbed by a foreign power while it was operating in international waters. The US Navy, in it's infinite wisdom, decided that the Pueblo didn't need to be escorted while operating near an unfriendly dictatorship. The creww was held and tortured for a year, then released.
The US Navy decided, after much hemming and hawing not to prosecute the commander for "giving up the ship". The USN also didn't want to drag their own command structure through the mud, as they so richly deserved. That was also, along with the drug situation, why OWW decided not to re-up when the time came to decide, in 1973. I knew that, at that time, the USN would not come to my aid if the bad guys grabbed me. I did my four years and got out.
Commander Bucher was the Captain of the USS Pueblo. He was hung out to dry by the very people who decided that his ship didn't need to be protected. He did, however, do every thing that could possibly be done to protect his crew.
The USS Pueblo is held to this day by North Korea.
The entire time I was home-ported in San Diego, the San Diego Union, the local newspaper, displayed on the front page the number of days the USS Pueblo had been held by the North Koreans.
The UN, of course, did nothing.
Commander Bucher died 29 January 2004. RIP.
See the obit HERE.
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