February 04, 2004
Pueblo skipper buried with full honors
By Seth Hettena
Associated Press
Members of a Navy color guard carry the coffin bearing Cmdr. Lloyd “Pete” Bucher, who commanded the spy ship Pueblo when it was captured by North Korea in 1968, at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, Calif. — Denis Poroy / AP
SAN DIEGO — Former Cmdr. Lloyd “Pete” Bucher, the skipper of the USS Pueblo when it was captured in 1968 by North Korea, was buried Tuesday with honors from a military that he felt had abandoned him during 11 months of brutal captivity.
Three men who served under Bucher on the Pueblo helped carry his flag-draped casket to a wind-swept gravesite overlooking San Diego Bay at the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego. Bucher died on Jan. 28 at a nursing facility outside San Diego at the age of 76.
James Kell, who served under Bucher on the Pueblo, said in his eulogy that Bucher was a sailor’s sailor who thought of others first.
“He loved the crew,” Kell told the audience at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Poway. “There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for the crew, starting with that fateful day on the 23rd of January, 1968.”
The lightly armed Pueblo was monitoring communist ship movements and intercepting messages in international waters near the North Korean coast when it was attacked by torpedo boats. One sailor was killed and 82 were taken prisoner. Some of them, including Bucher, were wounded.
After 11 months, the crew was released two days before Christmas, some of them crippled or nearly blind because of the brutality and malnourishment they endured.
“He was beaten more than anybody else,” Kell said. “We were all beaten, we all were tortured. But he had it double, triple, quadruple what we got. Those injuries probably led to his death.”
In his homily, Monsignor Joseph Finnerty said the trials and triumphs that marked Bucher’s life paralleled those from the life of Jesus Christ, “who was also betrayed, abandoned, discouraged, spat upon, preyed upon.”
Bucher remained angry that the country he had risked his life for had not come to the aid of the Pueblo. “Everybody just forgot we were there,” he told The Associated Press on the 20th anniversary of the ship’s capture. But during captivity, he was a rock for his men and an inspiration to them, Finnerty said.
Kell read the audience of friends, relatives, former shipmates and active members of the Navy a message from the actor Hal Holbrook, who portrayed Bucher in a 1973 TV film about the seizure of the Pueblo.
“Pete Bucher was a beautiful man, a patriot who loved his wife and his country and the men who served and endured with him have been an inspiration,” Holbrook wrote. “I salute him from my heart.”
A Time magazine cover from 1968 that bore Bucher’s portrait was on the cover of the program at the funeral Mass.
Using an old Navy signal for praise, Kell, gave his captain a final salute.
“Bravo Zulu,” he said. “Well done.”
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Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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------------------------------------------------------------ Out of every 100 men, ten shouldn't even be there, Eighty are just targets, Nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back." - Hericletus, circa 500 BC
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