 Greeneville officers to face highest-level court inquiry
Civilians' names break the surface
Admiral tells court to scrutinize collision
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
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By Tanya Bricking and Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writers
Stacey Krall was watching "The West Wing" the other night when she broke down.
It had been that kind of week.
The television storyline was about nine military men dying after being shot down in their Black Hawk helicopter during a rescue mission. Krall, a pilot’s wife in Kane‘ohe, couldn’t take any more.
She already felt too close to two devastating military accidents in Hawai‘i in the span of a week that have sent a ripple of sorrow through the military community.
Two Army Black Hawk helicopters crashed near O‘ahu’s North Shore last Monday, killing six soldiers and injuring 11. The tragedy came just three days after a Navy submarine rammed a Japanese high school’s training vessel nine miles south of Diamond Head, leaving four teenagers and five adults missing and presumed dead.
The misfortunes have put the Pacific Command in Hawai‘i under international scrutiny and a spotlight that has made some military people defensive and others unable to shake their emotions.
"It is what everybody’s talking about, and it’s just heartbreaking," said Krall, first vice president and corresponding secretary for the Kane‘ohe Officer Spouses Club. "Those deaths touch our whole community."
Her husband, John, was flying in the search-and-rescue mission for the submarine collision when she heard the news of the helicopter crash.
"My heart just dropped," she said. "I had tears in my eyes because it’s that close to home."
'Definitely a tragic week'
In homes of about 53,000 active military personnel and their families stationed here, and for thousands of retirees and people who know those involved, the feeling has been the same.
"This was definitely a tragic week," Army Sgt. Gloria Bostick said. "And it has put people in a somber mood."
In elevators, at the gym, at work, Bill Paty can’t escape conversations about it.
"You have a common ground with people you don’t even know," said Paty, the civilian aide to the secretary of the Army.
"We know each other pretty well, and when something like this happens, it spreads out throughout our military support gang," he said. "The retired officers, each of them has had some experience along the way, and when something like this happens, they get that gut feeling that, ‘Oh, man, this hurts.’ They feel for the families. They feel for the commanders. And it is a tough go. But the bottom line: They suck it up and go again. There is no backing off from the overall mission."
The Army likes to say it owns the night, he said, and they will continue to practice, because "preparedness comes with a price."
Two military tragedies in the span of a week could simply be an aberration, said Janey Nodeen, a former senior manager in the Navy submarine community, now a businesswoman in Springfield, Va.
"There’s a saying that ships in the harbor are safe," she said, "But that’s not what ships are made for."
Military critics have heightened the tension for families struggling to get through the tragedies.
Researchers such as James Clay Moltz, a submarine expert at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in Monterey, Calif., are among those speaking out, saying things like: "We’re using military equipment as if it’s playground equipment."
"Safety, safety, safety'
Navy aviation structural mechanic Robert McDaniel can understand why people are underscoring the need for caution while carrying out tasks that often are inherently dangerous.
"A lot of people are talking about it — safety, safety, safety," he said. "The accidents were really crazy, and they really put the need for safety in perspective."
Retiree Everett Hyland, an enlisted sailor during World War II, was shocked by the dual tragedies and said many veterans are incredulous that the Greeneville’s crew could have failed to spot the Ehime Maru through the submarine’s periscope.
"That’s something a lot of people are talking about," he said. "How could they not see that ship? People really want to know the answer to that one."
Retired Marine Pacific commander Lt. Gen. H.C. "Hank" Stackpole, president of the Asia Pacific Studies Center in Waikiki, said it’s too soon for answers or finger pointing.
"In the grieving process, there is a tendency to throw blame around," he said. But emergency maneuvers are complex situations, he said, and sometimes people slip.
"The first thing you do is try to find out why, increase the situational awareness of your soldiers and try to avoid it," he said. "But it is a constant cycle."
'Hazard of being in the military'
The sadness of loss is going to be lasting, said Stackpole, who still has memories of being the only survivor when his helicopter was shot down in Vietnam and seven died.
"It is a hazard of being in the military," he said. "It is something we sometimes forget."
At the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, cemetery director Gene Castagnetti is surrounded daily by people touched by military deaths. The past few days have been particularly dismal, he said.
"We call it in the Marine Corps the ghost of the past," said Castagnetti, a retired colonel. "And it comes into your mind as fresh as it was yesterday. You hear the chop-chop of the helicopter blades, and you feel it. When something like this happens, it all rushes back, and you say, ‘Boy, there but for the blessing of our God, it could have been me.’ And you count your blessings."
Correspondent Johnny Brannon contributed to this report.
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