LASALLE, Colo – North and South Korea are on the edge of peace and ending a war that’s lasted decades, and it’s causing one man in Colorado to reflect on his past.
Alvin Plucker was one of the members of the U.S.S. Pueblo. It was a Navy spy ship that was off the east coast of North Korea in international waters
On January 23, 1968, the ship along with more than 80 members was taken by North Korea as prisoners of war.
Plucker was one of those members.
“We were taking on fifty caliber rounds all over the bridge,” Plucker said. “When you first get captured, that’s a time where you try to escape. Well, there was no escape.”
50 years later, Plucker has a museum in the basement of his home dedicated to his time serving as a POW. His basement is filled with memorabilia — even his prisoner uniform he wore for nearly a year.
“We were forced to take propaganda photos,” Plucker said. “If we didn’t smile in those pictures they took, we would be taken into a back room and you were beaten for it.”
50 years after being captured by North Korea, Plucker sits back and thinks about the future between the two Koreas.
The countries are in the stages of historic peace talks, and Plucker hopes that this could be a step in the right direction.
But he hopes history doesn’t repeat itself.
“I certainly have a lot of compassion for the people in North Korea. I have nothing against them," Plucker said. "The people in North Korea have suffered for so long. There are 50 or 60 years of nothing but hate. You just never know, because in the past peace talks were turned on.”
