 Civilians' names break the surface
Admiral tells court to scrutinize collision
Accidents devastate military families
Couple extends sympathy to those involved in accident
Incident may harm Okinawa presence
Chronology of tragedy at sea
Video of the sunken Ehime Maru
A Tribute to the Missing
Previous stories
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By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
The captain of the Navy fast-attack submarine that crashed into a Japanese fishing boat, its executive officer and the officer of the deck will go before a court of inquiry on Thursday at Pearl Harbor and face the Navy’s highest form of investigation, Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander of the Pacific Fleet, said yesterday.
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| Cmdr. Scott Waddle, captain of the USS Greeneville, faces court of inquiry.
Navy file photo |
The court of inquiry will consist of three admirals and will have subpoena powers. It could end in recommendations of courts-martial, Fargo said.
"The seriousness in which I view this tragic accident is reflected in the level of investigation and the seniority of the court members," Fargo said. "It will provide a full and open accounting for the American and Japanese people."
A deep-sea submersible found the wreckage of the Ehime Maru late Friday night in 2,003-feet of water.
The discovery has done little to ease U.S.-Japanese relations, which have been strained since the USS Greeneville crashed into the Ehime Maru on Feb. 9.
First came reports from Hisao Onishi, the captain of the Ehime Maru, that some of the Greeneville crewmen watched from the sub’s 20-foot-tall sail but made no attempt to help. The Coast Guard ended up rescuing the survivors 50 minutes after the collision.
Then came revelations that two of the 16 civilians aboard the Greeneville were at the submarine’s controls when it crashed.
Emotional family members of the victims have pleaded for more candor from the Navy about what was going on inside the Greeneville when it executed a "main emergency ballast blow" and smashed into the Ehime Maru, a Japanese ship used to train high school students as fishermen.
They have also asked the Greeneville’s captain, Cmdr. Scott Waddle, to apologize. Yesterday, Fargo said "there are legal implications" if Waddle were to apologize.
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| Seishiro Eto, Japan’s senior vice minister for foreign affairs, boarded a Coast Guard helicopter yesterday that took him to the site of the Feb. 9 collision between the USS Greeneville and the Japanese fishery training ship, Ehime Maru.
Associated Press |
Waddle, a 41-year-old U.S. Naval Academy graduate from Austin, Texas, has been reassigned to a desk job and has not responded to requests for interviews.
Along with Waddle, the court of inquiry will focus on the Greene-
ville’s executive officer, Lt. Cmdr. Gerald K. Pfeifer, and officer of the deck Lt. j.g. Michael J. Coen.
Pfeifer, reached at his home last night, said he had no comment. Coen did not answer telephone calls.
The court of inquiry will consist of three U.S. flag officers, led by Vice Adm. John B. Nathman, Commander of the Pacific Fleet’s naval air force. The other members are Rear Adm. Paul F. Sullivan, director for plans and policies at the U.S. Strategic Command, and Rear Adm. David M. Stone, commander of Destroyer Group 5.
Fargo also intends to invite Japan to send a Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force flag officer to participate as an adviser.
"They will recommend administrative or disciplinary action if appropriate, as well as make any other recommendations as to the circumstances surrounding the accident," Fargo said.
On Friday, the Navy suspended emergency surfacing drills with civilians on board and will not allow civilians to operate submarine equipment, at least temporarily.
Fargo would not reveal details of the Navy’s preliminary investigation of the crash. He described the preliminary investigation as a "closed process."
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| The USS Salvor headed out of Pearl Harbor yesterday en route to the accident site.
Associated Press |
The court of inquiry, however, will be open to the public and media.
Fargo did release the names of the 16 civilians who were on board the Greeneville. They included two visitors each from Hawai‘i, Kansas, Massachusetts, Colorado, and eight from Texas.
Susan and Michael "Mickey" Nolan, of Hawai‘i Kai, last night issued a statement that read in part:
"These are compassionate people, from the captain and his officers throughout the entire crew," the Nolans said, "and we believe from what we witnessed of their actions and responses from the moment of the collision, through their vigil over the survivors in life rafts, until adequate help arrived from the Coast Guard and throughout the night of search, that the men on the USS Greeneville felt great sorrow and remorse about this terrible accident."
What is known publicly about the crash was that the Greeneville was nine miles south of Diamond Head, carrying civilians on a one-day trip.
The Greeneville then dived to 400 feet, the National Transportation Safety Board has said, and performed an "main emergency ballast blow" that sent it crashing into the Ehime Maru, causing it to sink within 10 minutes.
Nine of the 35 people who were aboard the Ehime Maru were still missing last night. The Coast Guard said it will continue to its search indefinitely.
Late Friday night the Scorpio II, a deep-sea robot, discovered the wreckage of the 174-foot Ehime Maru upright in 2,003 feet of water. It was lying 1,000 yards from the site of the crash with the Greeneville.
Scorpio II’s sonars found the wreckage and its video cameras positively identified the Ehime Maru’s name from the stern plate. However, the robot is too large to get inside the sunken vessel.
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| The unmanned submersible, Deep Drone, is lowered onto the deck of the Salvor.
Associated Press |
The Navy provided the families of the nine missing fishermen with video footage from Scorpio II.
"The families have been a great concern of ours throughout this past week," Fargo said.
Nonetheless, the families yesterday told a visiting Japanese dignitary, Seishiro Eto, senior vice minister for foreign affairs, that they were frustrated with with the progress of the search.
Eto passed their concerns on to Adm. Dennis Blair, commander of U.S. Pacific forces, during a meeting yesterday afternoon.
Eto told Blair the families want most of all to have the Ehime Maru raised from the ocean floor, according to press briefing held by Japanese Foreign Ministry officials.
U.S. military officials have not committed to that project, which they say would be complex and expensive.
Eto also met with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon on Friday. Rumsfeld expressed his apologies for the accident, a message Blair repeated yesterday.
Advertiser staff writer Karen Blakeman and contributor Toshi Erikson contributed to this report.
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