Crew lauds
Greeneville and
its skipper

The chief machinist mate
called it the best boat
he has been on

Waddle offers new apology

By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

Crew members of the nuclear attack submarine USS Greeneville continued to express admiration today for their skipper, who bears the brunt of the blame for the collision last month that claimed the lives of nine people.

Today, Chief Machinist Mate Curtis Martin Streyle said Greeneville was "the best boat I have been on."

He told the Navy's court of inquiry that Cmdr. Scott Waddle was in charge of Greeneville's control room when the submarine went deep to 400 feet to begin the rapid rise to the surface as part of the emergency surfacing drill.

"He's pretty up front about that," said Streyle, who was diving officer when the accident occurred. "He directs the OD (officer of the deck) what he wants to happen. It was no different than in the past."

Once the emergency main ballast tank blow is ordered, Streyle said, "There's nothing we can do to stop the sub from coming up."

Petty Officer Corey Harris, who was stationed at Greeneville's ballast control panel, said several of the 16 civilians visiting the sub that day took turns sitting at the helm to drive the ship. It was Harris who supervised the civilians who activated the emergency main ballast blow by flipping two levers.

So far, only one of the 11 Greeneville crewmen who have testified, Lt. Keith Sloan, expressed any objection to the style of Waddle, the Greeneville's beleaguered skipper.

Just before embarking on the Feb. 9 day cruise that ended with the Greeneville ramming the Japanese fishing trawler, Waddle rejected Sloan's suggestion that he give his junior officers more leeway.

Yesterday, Greeneville crewmen said the collision with the Ehime Maru felt like "a thud" and made the 6,000-ton nuclear sub "shudder."

"Everything seemed to be going normally before the collision," said Greeneville Petty Officer William Brown, a fire-control technician.

When the 6,000-ton nuclear attack sub surfaced under the hull of the 190-foot Ehime Maru, it felt like "a thud," Brown said.

Petty Officer Brandon Bowie, Greeneville's primary sonar operator on the day of the collision, said he recalled glancing at the depth gauge, which read 94 feet just before the first impact with the Ehime Maru occurred.

Within moments there was another impact, said Bowie, who has been on the Greeneville for 1 1/2 years.

When asked by Rear Adm. Paul Sullivan, the only submariner on the investigative panel, if he understood what had happened, Bowie replied, "I didn't think we hit any of the (sonar) contacts."

He was referring to the three surface sonar contacts he had been tracking before the Greeneville surfaced.

Two other sonar technicians manning the scopes on Feb. 9 also testified they never had any indications of "close contacts."

Petty Officer Roberto Reyes, a sonar operator, said his initial reaction was: "I thought we hit someone who was not moving and that was dead in the water."

---

Waddle offers
another apology

By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

Cmdr. Scott Waddle has delivered another apology -- this time to the captain of the Japanese fishing training vessel that was struck and sunk by his nuclear submarine, killing nine people.

During a brief recess at the eighth session of the Navy court of inquiry investigating the Feb. 9 collision, Waddle met with Hisao Onishi, captain of the 190-foot Ehime Maru, in a waiting room of the Pearl Harbor Trial Services building. With Japanese Parliamentary Secretary Yoshio Mochizuki looking on, Waddle apologized to Onishi for the accident and the loss of life.

In a brief appearance with reporters staking out the courtroom yesterday, Waddle said: "I wanted a chance to meet with him to offer an apology. It went very well."

Waddle, 41, also told Onishi to tell the families of the four missing high school students and their two teachers and the three Ehime Maru crewmen that he wants to visit Japan at the appropriate time to apologize to each of them in person.

Onishi was said to have responded that he understood Waddle's feelings.

Last week Waddle met with some of the families attending the Pearl Harbor investigative hearing to apologize to them.

In his one-hour appearance before a panel of three senior admirals, Onishi didn't provide many new details about the tragedy which occurred a little more than a month ago, nine miles south of Diamond Head.

When asked if anyone on the Ehime Maru spotted a periscope, Onishi said no.

Through an interpreter, Onishi used notes to help him with his testimony.

When the 360-foot nuclear submarine hit the Ehime Maru it forced the stern of the Japanese ship upward. There was a "terrible metal hitting sound." Flooding occurred almost instantly. The ship's instruments lost power. The helm went dead. Onishi said he tried to gather the crew and the students on the ship's upper deck. As he headed for the deck, water was lapping at his heels.

Moments later, Onishi said, a wave tossed him into the sea, quickly drawing him away from the Ehime Maru. As he looked back he could see men and boys still clinging to the deck. In the tiny courtroom, relatives, who were seated in two rows, stopped taking notes.

Some sobbed. Others brushed aside tears. Later, Kazuo Nakata, who lost a son, said he was still too upset to talk to reporters.