The USS Yorktown and the USS Pueblo Incident;  
The Carrier that Charged the Bombers!

It was dark of night around the end of January 1968 when the task force under the command of Captain Bill Bennett, skipper of the Yorktown was ordered to proceed at full speed ahead...the USS Pueblo, had just been captured by the North Korean communists.  Furthermore, after the Yorktown arrived on station, there was a suspicious blip on the screen that later turned out to be a Russian frigate.  Unbeknown to Captain Bennett, the Russians were able to decode a UHF radio message sent by him to his task force destroyer captains changing the course and speed of the group warning of the Russian intruder.  As it turned out, the Russians also changed course and speed simultaneously because spies (two former US Navy enlisted men) had provided the encoder book to the Russians nearly ten years earlier.  

Note: Captain Bennett died in 2006 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with honors "befitting his rank".

A squadron of Russian Bear Bombers then flew over the Yorktown, hugging the waves at about 100 feet attitude.  

How close this event came to erupting into World War Three no one will ever know, but for those on the bridge of the Yorktown and in Washington DC it had to be but a breath away.

The Yorktown was constantly being followed by Soviet Navy ships.  The Soviet Union Navy's standing orders...

"Grand Salvo.  If war breaks out, sink all of the United States Navy aircraft carriers."

Click here for the free previews of the Academy Award Winning Movie about
the USS Yorktown, "The Fighting Lady.

 

 

 

 

 
Kashin-class destroyer of the Soviet Navy 

Like a cocked gun at the head of the USS Yorktown and crew, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

From Falcons Landing News, August 1999 by Darwin Beauchamp

  The setting sun painted a ruby sheen on the winter sea, as the mighty carrier drove southwestward, bound for the South China Sea.  High on the cold bridge, Captain Bill Bennett, commanding the Yorktown, kept one eye on the aircraft lifting off into a gusty wind, as he took the weather report from the navigation officer.  The aircraft quickly reached minimum altitude and rolled into a climbing turn.  The voice in the Captain's headset gave departure directions to the pilot.

  Bennett scanned the report: High pressure dominated the eastern Pacific; westward, a powerful front swung down from the Japanese Islands to the South China mainland.   A low pressure system was building in the northern sector of the Sea of Japan.  Nothing to worry about at the moment.  Clear sailing until late tomorrow.  He smiled, thanked the navigation officer, checked the positions of the six escort destroyers, and left the bridge.  Ten minutes later, the ship's executive officer, Capt. C.E. Smith entered the skipper's sea cabin.

  `"Sir, we have an operational immediate; not code but a warning.  The situation is well...North Korean gunboats have attacked one of our ships, the USS Pueblo, in international waters in the Japanese Sea."

  "That's 1,000 miles from here!  What are we ordered to do?"

  "Make fastest available speed, through the Tsushima Straits and into the Japanese Sea.  You, Captain, are to maintain command of the task group, until relieved by the Admiral on the Enterprise, now on route to the same position."

  "H'm.  Five good destroyers and one with a boiler under repair.  I think that our best will be about twenty five knots."  The Captain grinned.  "Given that guess, what's our estimate to the Straits?"

  "Roughly sir," the XO replied promptly, "That's about one and a half, or two days, depending on that weather front.  I don't trust it!"

  "Nor, I.  Fuel?"

  "Sir, an oiler will meet us south of Kyushu.  I've already acknowledged the rendezvous coordinate.  We will fuel transiting the Straits."

  "Okay.  It's going to be rough.  I want maximum transfer, as quickly as we can get it done.  We'll refuel on the run, at best speed.  Please inform the skippers.  I don't like the  feel of this situation at all.  I'd like to have the whole tactical picture ASAP.  God knows what we will find when we come out of the Tsushima chute."  (Incidentally, XO Smith had been promoted to the rank of Captain but had never obtained a college degree.  Under operation "Bootstrap" the US Navy sent Captain Smith back to college to complete his degree.  Shipmates remember XO Smith as well liked and highly respected.)

 

Yorktown ploughed through the churning seas kicked up by the front's squall line, made contact with the waiting oiler and rigged out to fuel the carrier and two destroyers simultaneously, the the four remaining escorts, two at a time.  Fighting against tons of steel, flexing hose lines and the incredible power of the tossing sea, the force drove onward, into falling darkness and streaming rain.  It was a hellishly difficult operation, but now, in the darkness of late night, a task devised by the devil.  But a task made for US Sailors. 

David Chambers V3 1967-1968
USS Pueblo
Thu Dec 27, 2007 1:50PM
During my tour I was a blueshirt seaman in the V3 division hangar deck of the Yorktown. While under flight operations off the coast of Korea, during the Pueblo rescue mission, my assigned crew was moving a S2E onto elevator number three late one night. The number three elevator was known for waves hitting it when the elevator was down. Our job was the movement of the aircraft onto the elevator for the handoff to the flight deck crew.

On this night while moving the aircraft a wave covered the aircraft and all of us without warning. It was pitch black and in an instant Seaman Bartholomew was swept off his feet and being carried off the elevator by the wave into the dark night. Seaman Kenna, which was a Creek Indian from Oklahoma, grabbed Bart and save him from the possibility of being washed overboard.

 If Bart had been swept overboard into the freezing ocean he might not of been with us today. These are the acts of servicemen doing their duty that go untold for their service to their mission, buddies and Country.

 

  

A Petty Officer's view of the international crisis:

"The USS Yorktown wasn't the back-up or in support of, commanded by Capt Bill Bennett, we WERE the United States military's first response as Capt Bennett led us at full speed into the night. I can only wonder what was going through his mind knowing that shortly we were to be the first on the scene. Just think of all the unknowns that man faced at that moment in history, and forward we steamed, to do our duty, Capt Bill Bennett commanding."
 

It was January 1968 and we had left the hot, humid South China Sea and were en-route to Japan for a routine port call. Events were about to unfold that made it my third and final tour of duty in Vietnam. As we steamed north the weather turned cold as we got closer to Japan. At the time we all thought that was a welcome change in temperature.

January 23, the USS Pueblo was just attacked and captured off North Korea in the Sea of Japan.  The Yorktown and her task group were about two days away. Our orders were to make best speed to the scene and take action. I can't begin to describe what was going through our minds as we picked up speed and proceeded to North Korea.

It was immediately apparent the Yorktown was it, there wasn't any other naval force within a week or two of our location and we knew it. The rescue of the Pueblo and crew were in our hands and man, were we up to the job. As we steamed forward into the night, morale was so high aboard the Yorktown guys were going nuts. I know I was. Total strangers were giving "high-fives" as we passed in the passageways. Everyone was so outraged that someone, ANYONE, would attack our Navy ship, let alone board and capture it. And now it's up to us to make it right and get them back.

I guess the best way to describe the mood, at least for the crew in CIC, is the US Cavalry bugle charge was sounding in our heads every ten minutes 24-7 for the next week and our sabers were out. The Yorktown was about to KICK ASS. We just knew plans were being made to form a landing party, led by our Marine detachment, made up of us sailors. I spent two days trying to find the guy with the list of volunteers. I wasn't going to be left behind. Everyone I knew wanted to storm ashore.

Everyone in CIC (The USS Yorktown's Combat Information Center) was on a modified general quarters duty status and we were glad to be on duty doing something. As we entered the Sea of Japan approx. 30 hours later, an unusual thing happened. The Yorktown's orders from the 7th Fleet Commander in Pearl Harbor were left lying about in CIC. The first message read

 "Attack anything communist".

then about 12-15 hours later another order came in saying

 " Identify your target before attacking "

the following day or so the orders read

" don't fire unless you're threatened".

Now the Yorktown and task group are on station east of the port of Wonson, North Korea and we are steaming back and forth, waiting. At the time we didn't know what we were waiting for. We're here, lets do it. About then I read the last order from Pearl.

 "don't fire on anything unless directly attacked".

 I should say that was the last order left out in the open in CIC, the rest stayed secret.

Now we're on station about a week in this Goddamn freezing weather wondering what the hold up is. They have our crew from the Pueblo and we have to get them back. The bulge charge is beginning to fade as we try to deal with the inaction. We still have hopes of going in and lay waste to the little commie bastards.

We get the word, the USS Enterprise is en-route from Vietnam along with several other attack carriers. As soon as they get here things will happen. The travel time is approximately two weeks so there is nothing to do but wait. Things in CIC were rather tense, not knowing if the North Koreans were going to conduct an air strike on us or not. The Yorktown was about 10-15 minutes away from their bases.

The Enterprise and other carriers arrived along with their task groups and now we have one hell of a Task Force ready to do battle. The Yorktown crew is pumped up again and ready to do our part. One day I was supervising the lookouts on the 07 level when I saw the Enterprise come through the cold mist and steam in formation with us about three miles away. What a sight, what a huge ship with her box like superstructure. Something never to be forgotten.

As I recall they were with us for about a month in the Sea of Japan. And nothing happened. Morale began to slip as we realized nothing was going to happen. We kept thinking of the crew of the Pueblo ashore and couldn't imagine what was happening to them or if they were still alive. At this point we just didn't know anything.

Then everyone just left. Everyone but us. The whole US Navy was gone but for the Yorktown. Then we knew, there was to be no rescue, no payback, no nothing!

 Morale took a real nosedive. It was all we could do just to do our duty, which of course we did. But it was hard. The weather didn't help matters as it seemed there was a blizzard every other week. It's the only time I saw snow covering our flight-deck. I could empathize with our troops who fought on land there during the Korean War.

I can't describe the emotional highs then lows we, I, went through during those three months on station there. I'm feeling it now as I write so I'll close with we left the area and made port in Japan about April 20th. I left the USS Yorktown and was discharged in San Francisco on April 24th, the day before my 21st birthday.

Pat Dingle Radarman, Petty Officer 3rd Class