Date: Sat, 2 Apr 2005 10:57:55 -0800

Hello:

Some year to 18 months ago I contacted your organization. At the time, it was just curiosity about whether you all would like to receive any data/material pursuant to the analysis that was done to discover what intelligence was lost to PRK and other analysis in connection with the capture of USS Pueblo. I was an Intelligence Yeoman on temporary assignment in Jan. 1969 at Naval Security Station in D.C. housed in a secure vault with two naval officers (Special Pueblo Intelligence Damage Assessment Team (SPIDAT)). For three months we assembled all potential intel material that may have been compromised, based on many authorities including your debriefs after you returned from captivity. We ended by writing a detailed analysis for NCO and DCI (and I assume JCS and up). In June last year (2004) I sent a FOIA request to Naval Security Group asking for a copy of the analysis I was involved in creating which eventually went on up to CNO and DCI. After some 8 months and some re-routing of my request, it finally fell into the lap of National Archives and they did contact me. After another 60 days or so, they again contacted me to tell me they found what I was looking for - 9 copies of a report with ~600-700 pages - dated March 1969. It's full of classified material. They asked me if I would like for them to distribute to appropriate agencies for redaction and I told them I would. That process has started but, as you know, could take a while. But, it's being done and, some day hopefully soon, I'll get a copy. They did find a special oath that I had to sign (even though I had Top Secret SI clearance) to be allowed access to the material - refers to overall authority CNO and DCI and the secured vault we were housed in during the analysis. They sent me a copy of the oath showing my signature on 1/29/69. At any rate, I would assume there are some of crew still with us that might have an interest in seeing what will be sent to me. I would be happy to share with you all if that is the case. Just let me know.

Best regards, Bob Keller Sacramento, CA

Date: Sat, 9 Apr 2005 23:23:05 EDT

Hello,

My Name is Donald P. Nash II. I don't have anything to do with the pueblo incident, But I was Fortunate to have spent some time with Stephen Harris. He, along with Chief Petty Officer Richard White were my NJROTC instructors at Centennial high school in Compton California From 1985 to 1988. A lot of things that I do on a daily basis is a direct result of their leadership and instruction. CDR Harris was very accommodating in my career aspirations and my development to adulthood. During my time in the NJROTC these gentlemen exposed me to the traditions of the USN and USMC and that good honest hard work will have positive benefits. I can't say enough about these two gentlemen. CDR Harris, Chief White and the US NAVY has had a profound positive impact on my life. Although I ultimately decided on another career path, I wish I had spent some time or maybe a career in the NAVY. Things still turned out great for me, I'm in good health and in a successful career as a fifteen year veteran Firefighter/Paramedic for the Los Angeles Fire Dept. The reason I'm writing this email Is that I would like to reach Stephen Harris, to see how he's been these days and to thank him again for all he did for me. Or at the very least give him this Email. I will appreciate any assistance that you may be able to give me.

Thanks again, Donald P Nash II

Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 21:18:25 -0700

Thank you for your valuable service to our country and sharing what happened to the ship and crew. Our government's lack of action was/is appalling and the court martial is a travesty. It saddens me that the crew was sent in harms way alone and yet expected to fight off the North Koreans forces with small weapons. I saw recent article that I am not sure if you have seen on Yahoo. Not much new information, in fact just propaganda, but I thought worth sharing. Temporary URLs were not posted.

Editor "Kevin Bosetti"

Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 17:21:41 -0700

Just spent quite a little while reading an episode of American history wow what ELSE don't I know about US history??? Thank you so much for this website - I never knew about the USS PUEBLO and its crew and how the NKoreans treated them God Bless the men of the PUEBLO

ait.consulting

Date: Sat, 16 Apr 2005 23:24:58 -0700

Greetings,

I am writing a paper for school about the USS PUEBLO (AGER 2) and the incident. Thank you all first for your amazing service to our country - you all are heroes. Also thank you for maintaining such a thorough website so that your story will not be forgotten.

Sincerely, Dan Stoddard

Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2005 11:28:08 -0700

Hello,

Great site about an event I had not heard of before. There is a typo on this page though: ominous in spelled as 'onimous'. -Thanks for providing this window on history,

George Morris

Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2005 03:49:32 GMT

I want to thankyou for the website. In Dec. 1967 I had just returned from a civilian job in Viet Nam. Planning on going to college, I decided one way to help pay the bill was to join a Reserve unit. I went to the Naval Air Station in Dallas and inquired as to what was available for a PR-2. They told me that the only slot open was with VF-703. I did not really want a fighter squadron, but accepted the billet anyway. In Jan. 68 I made the monthly drill and then went out to Arlington State College (now UTA) to start the enrollment process. Two days prior to registration your ship was captured. On the way out to school for a meeting with a councelor I was stopped at a red light in Grand Prairie, Tx. The music was interrupted with an anouncement that USNR Fighter Squadron 703 was being called to Active duty in connection with the capture of the USS Pueblo. I pulled into a gas station and called home to see if there had been any calls from the base. I was told that I had just received a telegram. My mother opened it and sure enough it was a notice of recall. When I reported to the base the next day the mood was one of Let's Go Get The Ship Back. Well, obviously this never happened. For just over 8 months we 'played' at being sailors. It seems that the Reserves were just not ready to go as they should have been. Since that time the Naval Air Reserve has changed the way they do business. All Reserve Air Squadrons are now 'full-time' squadrons that are truely ready to go in the event of a call up. This is a little know effect from what happened to your ship. Since that time, every time I hear of the Pueblo, I feel pride for the people that I served with that were willing to put it on the line if we had been used for the reason we were called up. I also admire and respect all of the men of the Pueblo.

Jon Selah

Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2005 20:09:17 -0600

Gentlemen:

I had the honor of knowing "Joe" [Sterling] for several years while he lived in Idaho Falls, Idaho and had the privilege of attending his retirement from the Navy here. Joe and his wife Genny were close friends of myself and my wife. For all the years I knew Joe, he only gave us a slight insight into what he went through during captivity and it was unbelievable what each of you went through. We can never begin to repay the debt we owe you guys. I lost track of Joe when he left Idaho Falls and attempted to find him for quite a while before I found his address in Nebraska. Unfortunately he had already passed away and I feel a real loss. Your web site is outstanding and I will continue to monitor it.

Hank Mende Idaho Falls, ID

Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 11:15:26 -0500

This email is from a CTO3 who was working the Service Desk at PCRS San Miguel "YMZDSV" at the time you guys were captured. The CRITICS were altrouted through us to Hawaii. I spent about 14 to 16 hours in the Comm Center during the first part of your ordeal. If they would have given us guns, you would have had about 20 "O" brancher nerds coming to get you guys. Here's the question: Do you have for sale some sort of Pueblo remembrance patches. I'd like to carry you guys with me on my motorcycle vests. (also the Liberty...was out in the Gulf of Tonkin on the Constellation and on duty when she was shot up). If nothing else can be said, then from one CT to another CT... BRAVO ZULU...WELL DONE. I will never forget!

Greg Hartigan CTO2 1965-1970

Date: Tue, 3 May 2005 22:54:05 -0400

I sent an email to your website regarding my thoughts concerning your capture and the search and flight ops we did off Korea in 1968. I was on the Yorktown, attached to the Enterprise Task Group. We were an ASW carrier. It was a hell of a feeling then to know we were sailing off into the deep blue leaving you guys there. I was a new ASE-3 and about as low as you can get in the NAvy when that happened and I undoubtedly know less than anyone involved about what happened. I do recall that we made crude "snowplows" from 55 gallon drums and put them on the tow tractors so we could plow the flight deck and launch and recover every day while there. I well recall 18-20 inches of snow every day on the flight deck. I was in the ship's department managing the aviation support equipment. I know you had it bad. Navy carriers aren't, or weren't back then, made for cold weather. Our work space was on the Hangar deck and we made a metal reflector for the coffee pot so we could come in and warm out hands while we we on deck. I was a Police Captain when I retired in 1995 after 25 years, and dadgummed if I didn't retire from Georgia and move to New Hampshire where I really get to plow snow. God's best blessings to all of you. You deserve that and more.

Alan Yates Concord, New Hampshire

Date: Wed, 04 May 2005 07:39:24 +0000

Good morning,

My name is Christo Cornelissen and I come from the Netherlands. I,ve a question for you. In the Netherlands their was a programme over the funaral of the captain of the UU Pueblo. It was a programme about undertakers and in that programme their was information over the USS Pueblo. My question is as follow : today I brought a visit to the website of the USS Pueblo, and it says: the website is last updated today: 17 september 1999 !! Can you tell me, why their is no update anymore? It is an very interesting story, i like to read more about it. Can you tell me more about the captain and the crew of the ship? name, biografy, and date of death? can I read more about the place where he ( the captain ) is burried? Is the association still in the air? I hope that you can give me more information over the situation today. I send you my regards.

Mr C. Cornelissen De GK Swifterbant The Netherlands

Date: Mon, 9 May 2005 18:31:35 EDT

I have been reading British historian David Stafford's 1999 book, "ROOSEVELT and CHURCHILL: Men of Secrets", in which he says--on p. 7 of the paperback edition: "Then, shortly after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war, in December 1937, the [river] gunboat U.S.S. Panay--the American navy's most successful spy ship of its time, crammed with intelligence material ...--was sunk in the Yangtse River by Japanese warplanes while observing Japanese operations outside Nanking." (At the time the city of Nanking was the capitol of Free China, which made it a particular target for Japanese wrath as the center of resistance.) I had never heard that point before--and I am 74 years old. But it makes sense, as the U.S. government at that time foresaw a distinct possibility of war with Japan.

Date: Mon, 09 May 2005 22:32:58 -0500

Dear Sirs:

Who was the pilot of the helicopter who took the captain and crew out of Korea?

Thanks, James A. Hellams

Date: 5/18/2005 11:04:22

I find your web page very interesting; one more example of the inadequacies of government. My question is: what happened to the ship immediately after the crew was taken hostage? Was the ship bombed by the U.S. to prevent the intelligence equipment from falling into Korean hands?

James Ball Bristol, Tn.

Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 22:34:48 EDT

Served with a RM1 the name escapes me. He did a tour at the white house and was the RM who delivered the CRITIC FLASH message from you to the president. Said he had to plow past the secret service and break into a meeting of the national security council to deliver the message.

navy retired sends

Date: Sat, 21 May 2005 21:33:11 -0500

My name is Bob Payne. I am the editor of CRYPTOLOG, the news magazine of the Naval Cryptologic Veterans Association (NCVA). Our Summer issue will have a theme, "Naval Security Group in Harm's Way" about how CTs were often sent into harm's way unprotected and unescorted during the Cold War. I have a good personal article by Jim Layton but I need some additional personal stories by members of the crew of PUEBLO if I can get them. I also need to know what medals, ribbons, or awards were received by the crew of PUEBLO after they returned.

Many Thanks for any help, Bob .

Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 18:00:40 -0500

Please see attached for Monday's "Roll Call" article by Kate Ackley on recent legislative activity on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, on returning the USS Pueblo to the United States of America.

JT

Date: Fri, 27 May 2005 15:41:38 -0700 (PDT)

Dear Sirs; My elderly mother came across pictures that were taken of the crew being released in 1968. My brother was staioned in Korea and a photographer gave him copies. There are 3 black and white photos I think you will find of interest. Please contact me if you are interested I feel they should be with you. By the way I remember the Pueblo Crew and even tho I was quite young, felt they were getting a raw deal upon return.

I was raised in a military family and I Salute all of you....... Sincerely Shannon Simms

Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2005 23:05:06 EDT

my father was in vp48, the squadron that was given orders to keep the pueblo under surveillance "only" After one of their mission They were returning home in climate weather and told to drop to 2000' for approach, however there was a mountain (Mt. sokomo I think) in their way. All members onboard were killed. I have the accident report in my possession. If there is any info I can give you for your research let me know.

Mike Seaman

Date: 6/6/2005 9:31:17

I am one of the surivors of the attack on the Liberty. We are holding a reunion in Las Vegas this summer and are wondering if any of the men who were aboard Pueblo were stationed in Kamiseya Japan at one time. The reunion is for Kamiseya veterans. Even if there is no one interested they are asking if I could say a few words as we are doing a memorial for the USS Liberty crewment who died and the Kamiseya Fire victims. We want to include the Pueblo, could you help me out? I was very good friends with Joe Sterling. We were stationed in Washington D.C. at Cheltenham together. I introduced him to his wife Ginney back then and attended their wedding. It was wild.

Ron Kukal Sheridan, Wy 82801

Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2005 11:02:50 EDT

“June 8, 2005

Re: USS Pueblo

Dear Senator Jones:

I am writing to you today on behalf of my father and his fellow crewmen that were aboard the USS PUEBLO when on January 23, 1968, it was attacked by North Korean Vessels and ultimately captured by the North Koreans. My father and his fellow crewman were held for 11 months as prisoners of war and suffered horribly at the hands of the North Koreans. They were beaten, tortured and harassed. This is the edited and un-detailed version of what they had to endure. For more particulars of their story, you may wish to visit www.usspueblo.org. The reason, however, that I am writing to you today is that when my father and his crewmen were released on December 23, 1968 and crossed , one by one, the Bridge of no Return to freedom, the USS PUEBLO was left behind in North Korea. The failure to bring the ship home with the crew is an atrocity. The crewmen aboard the USS PUEBLO suffered enough and all they ask is for the ship back in the US. Currently the USS Pueblo is being used as a Tourist attraction in North Korea off the Taedong river which runs through Pyongyang (the city in which their compound was located). This is a slap in the face to all the crew members who suffered so horribly already... I ask of you Senator Jones to please rally the legislature together to bring the USS Pueblo home. So many members of the crew, including Captain Bucher, have already passed on without seeing their dream of bringing the USS PUEBLO home. Please do not let another crew member who served their country so gallantly pass on with out seeing their dream come true. HELP US BRING THE USS PUEBLO HOME!

Cassandra Lee nee Rogala Daughter of Richard J. Rogala Largo, FL

Date: 6/10/2005 7:41:54

I was saddened recently to discover that Mr. Bucher had passed away. I missed this detail in the news when it happened. I was about 10 years old when the Pueblo was captured, I guess incidents recede into history, in ones mind, as they grow older. I still remember my Father (a Navy Vet of WW2 & Korea) wrote the Whitehorse in defense of the Pueblo crew - Though I was young & didn't really understand the implications of the Pueblo incident, my fathers letter to the Whitehorse let me know it was something he felt very strongly about. In my later years, (being a Navy vet myself now), I came to understand the importance of the incident. I've posted sometime ago in your website guestbook, but I'd once again like to say "Thankyou" to the entire crew of the Pueblo for their sacrifice for made this country. I thank God that Mr. Bucher and the other deceased members of Pueblo were with family and/or loved ones at the time of their passing (as I'm quite sure there were doubts of this when in captivity). Mr. Bucher and all of the members of Pueblo will always be considered true heroes as are the thousands of servicemen who have risked or sacrificed life & limb to secure this country's freedom. I pass this ideal on to my child as well. From the bottom of my heart: Gods Speed to all of Pueblo crew - Your sacrifices and lives have been an inspiration to my family and myself.

Brian Bottorff (vet) Savannah Georgia

Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2005 21:51:31 -0400

my father negotiated the release of l. bucher. unfortuately he passed away in 1987. i am currently 26 years old and would like to know more about the pubelo incident and especialy its survivors.

brendan mcdonough

Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 21:16:56 EDT

My father served on the jose valdez with Don E. Bailey and would like to get in touch with him. Does anyone know his e-mail address or home address? Any info would be helpful, my dad is Harvey Shaw. Thank You-

Stacey Shaw

Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 08:27:17 GMT

I worked with PH1 Lawrence W. Mack at the Pensacola Airport from 1997, when I was 24. until Larry Died. He did not tell me about USS PUEBLO (personnaly I never study about it in School and I was a Government major in College) until a co worked asked me to question Larry about it. At first Larry said he did not speak about the past. On day about a year later, Larry told me the story. He believed that DeCDR Lloyd Mark "Pete" Buchern saved his life.(I know now, many in the Military community disagrees) He felt that the ship would have been sunk. The ship had very little fire power to defend itself. He said many of the ships vets would like to received money from the feds based solely on being on the Pueblo. He said it was his duty that why you most likely did not here from Larry. Larry was a very close advisor to me. He spoke straight forward and honest. When I received a job with a congressman in DC I asked Larry if he wanted anything from the feds. He said no!!! Please place Deceased by Larry name. I think he died on March 5, 2003. I will get an Death Notice and E mail or snail Mail it to you. He said he had no money to be buried a coworked offered to buy him a casket so he could be buried a Barrancas National Cemetery will full military honors. He refused, he was cremated. I truly looked at Larry as a POW and a friend. I do miss him very much, in my line of work it hard to find people who speak without a political agenda. Larry had none.. Thank you for keep the USS Pueblo story alive,

Andrew Raines

Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 09:08:01 -0400

I wonder if, while they are munching on our sandwiches and laughing at our insanely misguided generosity, we might expect them to return the AGER-2, (USS Pueblo) as a small reciprocal gesture? Thanks to our gutless politicians, in January of 2006 the North Koreans will have held the ship for some 38 years. My highest regards and respect for the crew.

Vr, al Alan Lackey

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States has said it would provide 50,000 tonnes of food aid to North Korea, but the World Food Program said it was not enough to meet the "desperate" need of the people.