Waddle's friendliness impressed civilians
By Dan Nakaso and David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writers
They felt an instant bond to Scott Waddle.
Associated Press
Waddle lit up a cigar and began telling his life story on the morning of Feb. 9 as he guided his 6,900-ton, fast-attack submarine past his home near Pearl Harbor. On shore, Cmdr. Waddle's wife, Jill, waved goodbye to her husband and the 16 civilian visitors he carried that day.
Cmdr. Scott Waddle, captain of the USS Greeneville when the submarine rammed into the Japanese fishing vessel Ehime Maru, arrives at the U.S. Navy's court of inquiry Tuesday at Pearl Harbor.
When his guests came aboard the Greeneville, Waddle said they probably wouldn't be able to keep his crew — he referred to them as his "shipmates" — from bragging about their fast-attack submarine.
"They are so proud of the boat and what they do and they love to have people onboard," Susan Nolan of Hawai'i Kai remembered Waddle as saying.
It was the kind of care the civilians said was constant even after the Greeneville sliced through the hull of the Ehime Maru fishing boat while performing an "emergency blow" maneuver, killing nine Japanese fishermen, teachers and crew.
The National Transportation Safety Board spoke to the civilians in the days following the crash and released transcripts of the interviews yesterday.
Michael "Mickey'' Nolan, Susan's husband, remembered that Waddle didn't want to leave the ship's sail to go below deck and let the Greeneville submerge.
Advertiser library photo • Feb. 13
Crewmen "kept telling him that it was time for us to go down," Nolan said. "And he would say, 'Well, I'm not finished with my story yet.' "
The USS Greeneville is seen docked four days after the crash.
Susan Schnur of Texas described Waddle as "classy, classy, classy" before, during and after the collision with the Ehime Maru.
He even made good on a promise to provide the tour group with a memento of what was supposed to be only a seven-hour trip, she said.
As the morning trip turned into an overnight search-and-rescue operation, Waddle told his guests: "I know you're going to think I'm crazy for thinking about this, but I haven't forgotten about the things that I promised you, and that's a part of what I do."
The next morning, as the civilians prepared to climb aboard a ship that would take them back to Pearl Harbor, Waddle appeared with autographed pictures he had promised.
Schnur remembered Waddle apologizing "profusely" to the civilians.
"It wasn't supposed to be that way," Waddle told the group. "It was supposed to be a lot of fun."
