American Notes THE NAVY

The Defense Department has a strange way with awards. Until this week, the crew of the U.S.S. Pueblo, imprisoned after the ship was seized by North Korea in 1968, had not received the Pentagon's POW medal. Since the U.S. and North Korea were not at war at the time, former Commander Lloyd Bucher and his men were classified as mere "detainees." It took an act of Congress to change the Pentagon's mind. Contrast that with the medals awarded to Captain Will Rogers III and Lieut. Commander Scott Lustig of the S.S. Vincennes last year. They were cited for their conduct during a skirmish in the Persian Gulf on July 3, 1988. The citations did not mention that an Iranian airliner was mistakenly shot down just after the incident, killing 290 civilians.