Station HYPO

By the end of March 1968, the North Koreans appeared to believe their prisoners were becoming too defiant. When two sailors accused a guard of stealing their cigarettes, Super C decided to make an example of them.

The Americans’ spirits lifted on March 17, 1968 when Steve Woelk, the young fireman injured by the same shell that killed Duane Hodges, was reunited with them. Since the day of their capture, Woelk had been kept in a North Korean hospital, and despite numerous inquiries, Bucher had received almost no information about his condition. An upbeat Kansan known for his country-western singing, Woelk was well liked by his shipmates, and Bucher and the officers warmly greeted him as he hobbled through the front door of the “Country Club,” (prison) as the men had dubbed their new prison.

After six weeks on a diet nearly devoid of vitamins and protein, the crew began to exhibit signs of severe malnutrition. The ship’s cook, Harry Lewis, estimated they were surviving on only 500 calories per day—the equivalent of three unbuttered English muffins. Most of the men were rapidly wasting away—Bucher alone had lost forty pounds—and many suffered from debilitating diarrhea. What began as mild illnesses soon worsened; bouts of flu turned into pneumonia, and minor cuts festered into dangerous infections.

Captain Brad “A-Z” Abramowitz
Deputy Director of Operations
National Security Agency, Georgia

After nine days confined in the Barn (prison), Commander Lloyd “Pete” Bucher still wore the same bloodstained, dirt-caked uniform he had been captured in. The stench of his own unwashed body nearly made him gag. It was a miracle, he thought, that his wounds had not become infected in such squalor. Rats scurried freely through the latrine, and whenever he lay down, swarms of tiny gray bugs emerged from his rice-husk mattress to bite him raw.