Hxen.com's tips：Every day persisted can learn English well!-->■Learn English Everyday■
"They were really sort of drummed out of the Navy," said Mitchell Lerner, author of The Pueblo Incident, and an associate professor at Ohio State University. "They were treated not as deserving heroes, but as people who surrendered a ship that they shouldn't have surrendered. And then capitulated to torture and signed a bunch of false propaganda statements. Essentially what they were told is that you should have gone down with the ship. And the fact you didn't means we're not going to do much for you upon your return."
Some members of the Pueblo's crew were recommended for court-martial, but the secretary of the Navy intervened and all charges were dropped.
Their ship never left North Korea. In the late 1990s, it was towed around the Korean peninsula, and was anchored in the Taedong River in Pyongyang. It is now a museum that praises North Korea's military for its capture.
A guide leads visitors along its deck, proudly pointing out hundreds of bullet holes that are circled in red. She also shows off the spot where Duane Hodges, the only Pueblo fatality, was killed when the ship was captured.
Inside the old mess hall, a video tells the story of the Pueblo from the time it was seized until the crew was set free.
"General Kim Jong Il instructed to state, the U.S. government should take responsibility and apologize. Then we will return the prisoners, but we cannot return Pueblo because it is a trophy," says the video.
McClintock blames Washington for letting the Pueblo become a propaganda toy of the North Koreans. He would have rather seen the ship destroyed.
"Blow it up right then. The ship was given up with no retaliation, nothing. And it's still to this day, a commissioned ship. For the government of the United States to allow that to happen, to be towed 1,500 miles, is the ultimate insult to the crew," he said.
There are some U.S. politicians who want to get the Pueblo back from North Korea.
McClintock says if that ever happens, he hopes to be part of the handover.
"What I would like to be on board is the navy ship that meets the Pueblo when it is towed out into the East China Sea for the exchange," he said.(www.hXen.com)
But he may have a long wait. Over the past five years, the United States has focused on efforts to end North Korea's nuclear weapons programs, which have stalled. Other issues between the two countries, including the Pueblo, have received little attention.