Comes now the sto
ry of the charge of the Yorktown against bombers sent
by the Soviet Union to challenge the power of the United States. First light
seeped through the broken clouds that capped the waters off North Korea.
Three squadrons ready for war waited for orders to launch. The light grew,
as driving snow began to whiten the decks of the carrier. .
.
Still the
order for radar 'shut down' held Captain Bennett sipped coffee and stared into gray darkness. The
light grew; and out of the splintered morning light came a squadron of the
Soviet Union's largest four engine bombers, less than 100 feet off the surface,
wing to wing, straight at the USS Yorktown! No time to launch, nor were orders there to allow a defensive
move. Yorktown drove straight ahead. And in a hellish roar, seventeen
"Bears" swept over the USS Yorktown, US Navy's reply to military terrorism on the
high seas. |
USSR Soviet Union Navy Belt Buckle
For all 46 days on station, the Soviet intelligence gathering ship Gidrolog
stayed close to the Yorktown's
task
group, monitoring it.
During my tour I was a blueshirt seaman in the V3 division hangar deck of the Yorktown. My best memory of the USS Pueblo capture was that we ended up off the mouth of Wonson harbor sometime late one night. We were awakened by General Quarters and we made it to our battle station at the number three elevator hangar bay three. The first thing we noticed was all the lights around us, which we later figured out when a two man fishing boat passed under our elevator.
The second thing was one of
our planes with nuclear decals on the bombs and standing Marine
guards around the aircraft. This got our attention. We didn't have
any A4's just S2E and E1B's
and the loaded planes were the S2E's.
The next thing that we heard was the Admiral on the intercom telling
us that we were going in to rescue the Pueblo and its crew. That was
cancelled later on when we were order into international waters and
I think that was about 12 and a half miles off the coast.
The USS Enterprise arrived but I can not remember the exact number of days after we were on station. To the best of my knowledge and memory we were told the Enterprise was relieved because of all the unidentified submarines being located around our task force. I think the USS Kitty Hawk relieved the Enterprise. The first three days was the most nerve racking. During Circle William, for Nuclear defense, we were listening at the tracking of a aircraft bearing down on our position. In a instant the whole ship shook like one of our 5 inch guns was fired. Not being able to see what was going on we later found out that two F4 Phantoms broke the sound barrier over our flight deck for the interception of the hostile aircraft.
After that incident we had some Russian Bearcats fly over us with our fighters from the Enterprise shadowing them and I can clearly remember that they were close enough that myself and my buddies saw the pilot looking at us over his left shoulder with his oxygen mask on. We also had I quess a Russian ship keep cutting across our bow playing cat and mouse. After about a week thing were calming down and we all new the rescue mission had turned into just being present incase the situation got worse.
My memory that sticks to me today is how cold it was for the 46 days off the coast. I have never to this day ever been that cold again. I think how terrible the crew of the Pueblo suffered and how they were treated when they return home. Ironically after leaving the Yorktown for a school I was stationed at Imperial Beach Ca and saw the bus they were riding in when they returned to San Diego.
David Chambers
