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The big problem with the response to the Pueblo was that too many people sat on their hands waiting for someone else to do something. Pueblo was on the radio throughout the piracy and there was time to get some aircraft out there before they were towed away, but this guy thought that guy should make the decision, and nobody wanted to wake up the President. By the time Johnson was awake, it was too late.

Do I think they could have done a better job of fighting the ship, you bet your bippy I do, but they also could have been better armed. Having a couple of .50BMG for primary armament is shameful, but considering her cover mission is, I guess, necessary. They also showed a marked lack of ability to use the machine guns and kept no ammo in a nearby ready condition.

When we were off Lebanon and Isreal just a few months later, and with the USS Liberty incident fresh in our minds as well, we had ready ammo stockpiled nearby.

seamusTX wrote:

jimlongley wrote:How does the Pueblo qualify as a presidential embarrassment? Navy, yes, but what did the president have to do with it?

The quick answer is "the buck stops here." ("Here" being the Oval Office.)

Probably Pres. Johnson had little to do directly with the Pueblo incident. He was in some respects a broken man by then. However, 1968 was one of the worst years in U.S. history, and that incident was a national humiliation.

Thinking about it, I can't figure out how the North Koreans have been able to stick it to the U.S. with impunity for 50 years.

- Jim

I don't know, Jim, yes, being in the Navy at the time, the situation really stung our pride, but the general public, just tipping off the cusp of the anti-war movement, pretty much saw it as proof of the military's incompetence and justification for all sorts of criticism of the US's cold war policies and such.

Those of us in the Navy were horrified at first, any of us might have been in harm's way any minute, but when the Hawaiian Good Luck picture came out morale jumped a couple of quanta, and when Captain Bucher wrote his letter offering to paean the Koreans, we understood and were quite ready to do so. We stayed at a high alert status for a while, but then were downgraded when the negotiations started and it was obvious that a military response was not being considered.

Far from seeing it as a national humiliation, all we thought was that it was a Navy humiliation, and mostly a sloppy execution due to unpreparedness. A lot of what went wrong was rectified pretty quick. We had myself and several others sent for explosives training at the hands of the SeaBees, who were quite willing to play with things that went boom. We also got upgraded small arms training and an intensive refresher in machine guns, for a little while it looked like we were going to be issued .50s, but that didn't happen, too many going to 'Nam.

Purplehood wrote:

jimlongley wrote:In February/March of 1968, the US Navy, in the wake of the Pueblo debacle and having recognized that very few sailors knew how to scuttle their ships, sent large numbers of selected Petty Officers for training in doing just that.

I was one of those thus "honored."

I have to say that playing with C4, TNT, and Primacord for a week plus was a (excuse the intentional pun) blast.

At least they knew who should be taught (NCO's).

I'm not sure we warranted being trusted that much more. In '69 and '70 the Weather Underground was bombing reserve centers and once again NCOs were called upon to step up. Senior E4s and most E5s started standing sentry watches, something we hadn't done since we were E3s, with one minor but important difference, we were issued ammo.

WarHawk-AVG wrote:Shaped charge inside a low spot on the hull and that sucker is GOING DOWN!

Not entirely true, there is a lot of structure that has to be considered, and how water will flow and air pockets will accumulate, and a bunch of other stuff that I hardly recall forty plus years later, but the upshot is that multiple charges would be placed and set to go off in a predetermined pattern to lead to the swiftest and most thorough sinking possible. It was all laid out on a ship type basis and we were just supposed to follow the plan.

That said, then the explosives necessary were carefully stowed away in a location that would have made it impossible to get to them and get them laid out in less time than the Pueblo took to be taken.

One of the most gratifying pictures of the day was the front page of Life Magazine showing the captive crew displaying their Hawaiian good luck signs for the Koreans, and crew members sending Morse code messages by blinking. These days Morse is becoming a lost art.

How does the Pueblo qualify as a presidential embarrassment? Navy, yes, but what did the president have to do with it?

The hole in the Cole extended well below the water line. The ship I was on took a hit during WWII and was holed well below the water line but survived to fight another day.

In February/March of 1968, the US Navy, in the wake of the Pueblo debacle and having recognized that very few sailors knew how to scuttle their ships, sent large numbers of selected Petty Officers for training in doing just that.

I was one of those thus "honored."

I have to say that playing with C4, TNT, and Primacord for a week plus was a (excuse the intentional pun) blast.