Description USS Pueblo (AGER-2) is a Banner-class environmental research ship, attached to Navy intelligence as a spy ship, which was attacked and captured by North Korean forces on 23 January 1968, in what is known today as the "Pueblo incident" or alternatively, as the "Pueblo crisis".
The seizure of the U.S. Navy ship and its 83 crew members, one of whom was killed in the attack, came less than a week after President Lyndon B. Johnson's "State of the Union" address to the United States Congress, just a week before the start of the "Tet Offensive" in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War, and only three days after 31 men of North Korea's "KPA Unit 12" had crossed the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and killed 26 South Koreans in an attempt to attack the South Korean "Blue House" (executive mansion) in the capital Seoul. The taking of Pueblo and the abuse and torture of its crew during the subsequent 11-month prisoner drama became a major Cold War incident, raising tensions between the western democracies and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and People's Republic of China.
North Korea stated that Pueblo deliberately entered their territorial waters 7.6 miles away from Ryo Island, and that the logbook shows that they intruded several times. However, the United States maintains that the vessel was in international waters at the time of the incident and that any purported evidence supplied by North Korea to support its statements was fabricated.
Pueblo, still held by North Korea today, officially remains a commissioned vessel of the United States Navy. Since early 2013, the ship has been moored along the Botong River in Pyongyang, and used there as a museum ship at the Pyongyang Victorious War Museum. Pueblo is the only ship of the U.S. Navy still on the commissioned roster currently being held captive.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
January / 1968
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January / 1968
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
Memories U.S.S. BonHomme Richard VA-212 On the way to Yankee Station , coming from the States, we were sent to Korea to fly flag and provide any help we could. We were there a few days and then the Enterprise sailed in and we went on to Yankee Station.
-Shortly before Bonnie Dick's 27 Jan. 1968 departure from San Diego, North Korean seized the USS Pueblo AGER-2 in international waters near Wonsan and carrier task units were reassigned to patrol in the area.- From: http://www.ussbhr.org/History_Page.htm
