Page 15 of Cry Havoc

Outmanned. Outgunned. Outmaneuvered.

I have a responsibility to my men, to not waste their lives.

I have a duty to the country to not give up the ship.

He looked back out over the sea and made his decision.

“All stop!”

No sooner had the engines responded to his order than the sub chaser sent another barrage of shells at thePuebloin concert with machine-gun fire from the torpedo boats.

He ordered the ship all ahead one-third and the barrage stopped.

Okay, keep moving, but keep moving slowly.

Screams intruded on his thoughts.

My men.

He made his way toward the chaos below. Pushing open a hatch, his hand felt a dislodged piece of human flesh. On the deck, the ship’s medic was working on a sailor who had taken the brunt of one of the shells. It had almost completely severed his right leg, opening his abdomen in the process. Other sailors were wounded, bleeding from wounds to arms and legs.

Dear God. How many wounded do I have?

He continued on to the SOD hut, the classified chamber where his CTs fought to burn what they could.

There is still too much material that we can’t dispose of.

Bucher accepted thePueblo’s fate.

He made his way back to the pilothouse and ordered his navigator to destroy the log.

Then he brought thePuebloto a full stop when directed to do so by signal flags on the sub chaser.

A United States naval vessel was about to be boarded by a foreign nation.

Bucher returned to his stateroom for what he knew would be the last time. He put on his arctic boots and adjusted his cover, a Navy hat with his rank.

Surrounded by two sub chasers, four torpedo boats, with two MiGs doing suppression runs, in a slow boat that was tough to maneuver, with no American ships or planes to assist, without the means to destroy the remaining classified material, Bucher returned topside.

I should not have left Yokosuka until I had explosives.

The Navy rejected that request.

I should have tried harder.

Think of your sailors.

Do we have the ability to resist?

Have I done all I can?

He then moved to the stern of thePueblowhere the North Koreans were boarding.

Am I, a United States naval officer, really about to surrender?

He looked to the skies and then scanned the waves one final time. No one was coming.

Am I surrendering without a fight?