Sacrifical Love

SACRIFICIAL LOVE

The year was 1968. As a young MP I was sent to Korea that November. Most people have forgotten what happened earlier that year in Korea. The North Koreans captured one of our ships. It was called the "Pueblo Incident." After the U.S.S. Pueblo was captured by the North Koreans, the eighty-two surviving crew members were thrown into a brutal captivity. In one particular instance thirteen of the men were required to sit in a rigid manner around a table for hours at a time.

After several hours the door was violently flung open and a North Korean guard brutally beat the man in the first chair with the butt of his rifle. The next day, as each man sat at his assigned place, again the door was thrown open and the man in the first chair was
brutally beaten again. On the third day the same thing happened again to the same man.

Knowing the man could not survive another beating, a young sailor took his place. When the door was flung open the guard automatically beat the new man senseless. For weeks, each day a new man stepped forward to sit in that horrible chair, knowing full well what would happen. At last the guards gave up in exasperation. They were unable to beat that kind of sacrificial love.

--Andy Grossman