2003 Pueblo Dinner and Silent Auction

Featuring USS Pueblo Commander Lloyd Bucher & Mrs. Rose Bucher

The Catholic Foundation Annual Fundraising dinner took place on Friday, May 2, 2003 at the Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center.  Bishop Tafoya and the Board of Directors of the Catholic Diocese of Pueblo Foundation welcomed Commander Lloyd Bucher and his wife Rose.  This year's dinner was sponsored by Mike Cafasso of Pueblo Bank and Trust and the speakers were sponsored by Tom Anderson of Saint Mary-Corwin Medical Center. 

Bishop Tafoya presented commemorative plaques to Board members whose terms have expired.  They were:  Tom Healy, Cindy Medina, Jim Murray, Teo Prinster, Rosemary Reilly and Sally Stricca.  He thanked them for their services. 

Two new board members, Mary Barela and Anthony Nuñez were introduced. 

Both Commander and Mrs. Bucher shared their stories and the role their Catholic faith played before, during and after the event.  Mrs. Bucher was very instrumental in keeping the prisoners of the USS Pueblo in the public eye during their eleven months of torture and captivity. 

About the Speaker...

Commander Bucher was born in Pocatello, Idaho.  He was orphaned as a young child spending time between adoptive parents in Idaho and relatives in California.  In 1938, he attended Saint Joseph's Children's Home in Culdesac, Idaho.  From 1941-1945, he lived and went to school at the famous Boys Town near Omaha, Nebraska.  After a two-year stint in the navy, Bucher graduated with his class in 1948 then went to the University of Nebraska where he majored in geology. 

In June 1953, he was commissioned in the U.S. Navy Reserve and spent most of his career as a submarine officer.  His first command of a surface ship came in May 1967, the USS Pueblo, a small intelligence gathering ship.  It was during their first tour of duty, on January 23, 2068, that the Pueblo was captured.  The Pueblo was attacked off the North Korean coast by two Soviet-made S0-1 submarine chasers, three P-4 torpedo boats and two MiG-21 fighter jets.  The ships fired several 57 mm cannon and 40 mm machine gun rounds at the Pueblo.  One of the MiGs also fired.  The Pueblo was armed only with two machine guns.  Commander Bucher protested that the ship was in international waters, beyond the twelve mile limit, claimed by North Korea.  North Korean crewmen boarded the Pueblo.  Bucher ordered crewmen to burn secret documents.  While doing so, U.S. crewmen were wounded by North Korean fire, and one subsequently died.  North Korea seized ten bags of documents, the ship and it's crew.  The USS Pueblo became the first American vessel, since the British captured USS Chesapeake in 1807, to be seized by a foreign power on the high seas in peacetime. 

The eighty-three officers and crewmen were taken to the port of Wonsan and imprisoned.  The United States demanded their release.  The Koreans refused, charging that the ship had been captured legally in Korean waters.  President Lyndon B. Johnson activated fifteen thousand (15,000) military reservists and bolstered U.S. forces in the area.  On March 4, President Johnson received a letter purportedly signed by all eighty-two surviving crewmen stating that they would be released only if the United States admitted violating North Korean waters, apologized, and gave assurances it would not happen again.

The eighty-two men and the body of their comrade were returned to U.S. control on December 22, 1968.  The Koreans detained the USS Pueblo.  At a U.S. Navy court of inquiry in 1969, Bucher contended that he lacked both weapons to defend the ship and equipment to destroy the secret documents quickly.  He and the crewmen described how they had been beaten and forced to sign confessions.  High-ranking naval officers acknowledged that no air or sea forces were in position to aid the Pueblo in the event of attack.  Navy Secretary John Chaffee announced, after an inquiry, no disciplinary action would be taken against anyone.