A best friend sent me an excellent example of creative writing recently. Commander Lloyd M. “Pete” Bucher, skipper of USS Pueblo (AGER-2) was forced to sign a “confession” under duress while he and his crew were being held by North Korea. They were subject to beatings, torture, and mock executions after the intelligence collection ship Pueblo was captured by North Korean forces in international waters off the coast of North Korea on 23 January 1968. The North Koreans were never aware of how completely Pete Bucher had turned the tables on them.
As a personal aside, I was stationed in South Korea not long after.
I repost Pete Bucher’s words in appreciation. It is a shining example of how ingenious an individual can be even under the worst of possible circumstances.
Commander Bucher’s “Final Confession”
“A final confession in anticipation of leniency for my crew and myself for the heinous crimes perpetrated by ourselves while conducting horrible outrages against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for the purpose of provocating and annoying those stalwarts of peace-loving humanity. The absolute truth of this bowel-wrenching confession is attested to by my fervent desire to paean (pronounced “pee-on”) the Korean People’s Army Navy, and their government to beseech the Korean people to forgive our dastardly deeds unmatched since Attila. I therefore swear the following account to be true on the sacred honor of the Great Speckled Bird.
Following rigorous training in provocation and intrusion wherein each of my officers had to meet the overly high standards I had set for them we emerged from the bowels of San Diego harbor bent on setting records for the highest yardage gained in intrusions ever set in the standard patrol. Our first stop was Hawaii where I visited the kingpin of all provocateurs, including spies. None other than Fleet General Barney Google. He was all I had been told, sly, cunning, closed mouth, bulbous nosed, smelling of musty top secrets and some foul smelling medicine that kept him going twenty hours a day in pursuit of the perfect spy mission. He talked haltingly with me but persuasively about our forthcoming mission, “By God Bucher, I want you to get in there and be elusive, spy them out, spy out their water, look sharp for signs of electronic saline water traps. You will be going to spy out the DPRK. By the sainted General Bullmoose we must learn why they are so advanced in the art of people’s defense.
We entered into our assigned operating areas along the Eastern Korean Sea at latitude 39 N and boldly steamed in a northerly direction to the farthest point we could. In doing so we had traversed Operation Areas, Mars, Venus and Pluto so named because like the planets, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is really far out. We knew that the lackeys of the Bowery Street Billionaires would never be satisfied until we found out all there is to know about the huge successes that the noble peace loving peoples in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea had made in the recent past. Surely we had to find out how come such a newly-created government could lead its people so quickly into the number one position. As we went about detecting this valuable information, particularly the oceanic salinity, density, ionic dispersion rate, humpback whale counts, both low and high protoplasmic unicellular uglena and plankton counts. This information was of the highest value to our own scientists for the development of war mongering at sea when no one was looking.
Now we have come to realize just how great our crimes were and we seek the leniency of the Korean people even though we are criminals of the basest variety and deserve only swift punishment of the just Korean law. Further, we know that our crimes are greater than those of any criminals discovered this century, nevertheless we ask forgiveness and promise never to engage in such naughty acts ever again if we are forgiven. We know that our crime is merely a reflection of the dastardly policies of the Bowery Street Billionaires and we can only hope they realize their own responsibilities for our actions; because who else could have dreamed up such a heinous and foul playing ship as Pueblo and then searched out enough arch criminals such as we to operate it? Yea, we feel it is time indeed for those really responsible to step forward and accept their own roles and Admit, Apologize and give Assurances that they will never again prepare another spy bag to be filled with goodies. In summation, we who have been rotating on the fickle finger of fate for such long languid months give our word to the Great Speckled Bird that we will heretofore in all sincerity cleanse ourselves of rottenness and vituperations. We solemnly await our return to our loved ones so that the fickle finger can be replaced by the rosy fingers of dawn and salvation. So help me, Hanna.”
Signed/L.M. Bucher
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