Here is a Christmas story from an Army officer who remembers the release of the crew of the USS Pueblo in 1968:

Two days short of 40 years ago, what had promised to be Neil Bohnert’s worst Christmas season ever suddenly turned into his best.

An Army captain, Bohnert had spent 10 months as a “patient administrator” at a field hospital in South Korea. As the holidays approached, his separation from his wife and family grew more acute, and his spartan surroundings — a collection of metal Quonset huts cobbled together to form a medical facility — didn’t help.

“We were 30 miles in a straight line from Pyongyang (North Korea),“ recalled Bohnert, a hospital consultant who lives on Federal Street in Lynchburg. “That was well within artillery range for the North Koreans, and we were on constant alert.“

But Bohnert and the doctors and nurses who served under him were also on alert for another reason. Negotiations had continued throughout the year to free the 82 crew members of the U.S.S. Pueblo, a Navy information-gathering ship captured by North Korea on Jan. 22, 1968.

“There were a couple of false alarms, and we were told they might be released,“ said Bohnert. “It never happened. And then, on Dec. 21, we learned that an agreement had been reached, and we had 24 hours to make things ready.“

Bohnert’s hospital, the 121st EVAC MASH unit, had been designated to receive the crew members when they were officially released.

“We had to clear out a ward, fill out all the necessary forms and lay out some Navy uniforms for them so they could change out of their North Korean fatigues,“ Bohnert recalled. “Of course, that was before computers, so the paperwork took a lot longer than it probably would today.“

On Dec. 22, 1968, the crew was taken to the DMZ by truck and ordered to walk one-by-one across The Bridge of No Return that joined North and South Korea.

“Each man, as he took that walk, didn’t know if he would reach the other side alive, or if his fellow crew members would,“ Bohnert said. “Things were very tense.“  [The News & Advance]

Make sure to read the rest of the article.

For those who want to read more about the circumstances of the capture of the USS Pueblo, I highly recommend reading my prior article on the incident.