"It smells rotten to me,"
says Charles Gittins, the
Greeneville skipper's
attorney

Greeneville crewmen sort through
emotions, stigma of collision

---

By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

THE ATTORNEY FOR Cmdr. Scott Waddle slammed the panel of three admirals investigating the sinking of the Japanese fishing vessel Ehime Maru for not probing the "distinguished visitors" cruise that placed 16 civilians aboard the nuclear submarine USS Greeneville on Feb. 9.

"It smells rotten to me, to have some retired admiral who brings in a bunch of people who don't have anything to do with the Navy," Charles Gittins said. "They come from the mainland, and they have this admiral who is tapping in, and he is throwing the secretary of the Navy's name around.

"That is something I would like to know more about," Gittins told the Star-Bulletin before he left the islands to take on another military case in Pensacola, Fla.

Gittins, who represented Waddle before a rare Navy court of inquiry, was referring to retired Adm. Richard Macke, former Pacific forces commander. Macke, as far back as September, contacted the Pacific Fleet seeking to give a group of civilians a ride on a nuclear submarine.

Vice Adm. John Nathman, president of the court of inquiry, told Gittins during the March 16 session that the panel would look into the distinguished-visitor program.

Through 2 1/2 weeks of testimony before the court of inquiry, it was disclosed that the Greeneville would have never gone out to sea Feb. 9 if it had not had to fulfill a commitment to give 16 civilians a ride.

That distinguished-visitors embarkation -- "DV embark" in Navy jargon -- ended with the Greeneville ramming the Ehime Maru, slicing the ship's hull with its rudder. That collision sank the Japanese vessel, taking with it nine high school students, teachers and crewmen.

Although the panel was charged by Adm. Thomas Fargo, Pacific Fleet commander, to examine the DV embark program, Gittins said the three admirals doing the investigation did not seem interested in pursuing the matter.

ASSOCIATED PRESS
USS Greeneville Cmdr. Scott Waddle with his wife, Jill,
at the U.S. Navy's court of inquiry at Pearl Harbor this week.
Waddle's civilian attorney, Charles Gittins, is at right.

"I think what is going on is an admiral's protective organization," Gittins said.

Gittins said he had wanted to get Macke -- who was forced to retire in 1995 after making insensitive remarks about the rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan girl by three Marines -- to testify, but he was never called.

Last week, Gittins told the court of an e-mail sent by Capt. Kevin Wensing, then Pacific Fleet spokesman, to Lt. Cmdr. Dave Werner, public affairs officer for the Pacific Submarine Force.

That September e-mail said that Macke was "bringing 10 to 12 high-rolling CEOs sponsored by a group hosting a golf tournament on (the) island." No names were mentioned at the time.

That same e-mail mentioned the interest of then-Navy Secretary Richard Danzig and quoted Macke as saying, "If they can get a tour of a submarine and get an in-out ride on the boat as well."

Wensing this week said he now believes the information was mistaken and was a case of name-dropping.

Werner said under oath that he never checked why the Navy secretary would be interested. The golf tournament, which was supposed to have benefited the USS Missouri Association, was never held, and Werner said Macke withdrew the request.

But Werner also testified that in January, Macke once again approached the Navy. This time he contacted Rear Adm. Albert Konetzni, boss of the Pacific Fleet's Submarine Force, who told Werner to arrange the trip but "don't break China" to fulfill the request.

The trip for the 16 civilians, two of whom were from Hawaii, was supposed to be a part of a training trip planned for the weekend of Feb. 10-11, but Pearl Harbor submarine officials, including Waddle, postponed the training until Monday to give the crew the weekend off.

Instead, Konetzni's staff decided to allow Waddle to take the Greeneville out on Friday, Feb. 9, for a six-hour cruise just to entertain the 16 civilians -- a violation of Navy regulations since it was not part of a training mission.

"He was told to do it," Gittins said. "Of course, he could have said, 'I am not going to do it,' but what does that say to your commanding officer, to your superiors? 'Commander Waddle is a weak captain. He's not playing ball with us. We got this thing we need to do, and he is not playing ball with us.'

"'We have this thing to do, and we're not going to do it.' You're tasked with it. You do it. It's part of your job."

As for the possible charges pending before Waddle, Gittins cited his defense of each of the possible counts:

>> Dereliction of duty: "He honestly believed what he saw, and it may have been wrong, but you pay commanding officers to exercise their judgment. You don't court-martial people for exercising their judgment, even it is wrong."

>> Negligent homicide: "They have a significant problem in causation. Cmdr. Waddle's mistakes could have been the cause, but there is a big fat cause at the end of the line when the fire control technician of the watch has a target and the commander's standing order requires him to report, and he doesn't report it."

>> Hazarding of a vessel: "He had no knowledge that the ship was in any danger. You can't hazard a vessel if you don't know there is a hazard."

As for allowing Waddle to testify without immunity earlier this week, Gittins agreed there was "a risk."

"Scott wanted to do it," Gittins said. "It's the truth. Most of the information is already out. The only issues that are different is what did Scott see and what did he believe."

Gittins said Waddle's knowledge, his understanding and his belief established "reasonable mistake of fact," which is an "affirmative defense" to all of the potential charges. Gittins explained this means Waddle believed he was acting reasonably based on the facts as he understood them and that his beliefs were reasonable under the circumstances.

As for traveling to Japan to fulfill his promise to meet and apologize to the families of the nine missing students, teachers and crewmen of the Ehime Maru, Gittins said that will not happen until later next month.

Gittins said he hopes Fargo's final decision will be "based on the facts and not on the international political situation."

---

Greeneville crew
sorts through emotions,
stigma of collision

The sub's crew helps with repairs
and tries to move on after the
Court of Inquiry

---

By Michelle Locke
Associated Press

THE SUBMARINE USS Greeneville and the Japanese trawler Ehime Maru met in a grinding crash of metal that sank the fishing vessel in minutes. The impact will echo for years -- nine dead, some promising Navy careers in shambles and a ship full of sailors under a cloud.

"I think they (crew members) all realized that nothing was ever going to be the same with them," Susan Nolan, one of 16 civilians aboard the sub, said.

The accident happened Feb. 9 while the Greeneville was impressing visitors with a flashy emergency surfacing drill. The skipper, Cmdr. Scott Waddle, was promptly relieved of his command. He and two other officers were the subject of a 12-day Navy court of inquiry.

The three could ultimately face courts-martial.

The Greeneville is now in dry dock undergoing $2 million in repairs, mostly to the expensive rubber skin that coats the vessel, masking noise and thwarting enemy detection. The crew and sub could be back to sea by summer.

In the meantime the crew of about 150 has tried to resume normal life, working under a new captain and helping with repairs. Some were nowhere near the accident; about one-third were not even on board.

But others were close enough to see the Ehime Maru swallowed by waves after the Greeneville's rudder sliced through the fishing vessel's hull.

Pain seeped out from behind the sharply pressed uniforms and crisply correct procedure of the military hearing.

"It is clear that my name will be associated with this event for the rest of my life," said Lt. j.g. Michael Coen, choking on emotion.

The inquiry established that the Greeneville was in a rush that day, skimping preparations and violating standard procedure. Testimony was a series of "what ifs" -- what if a crewman had called out that he had a sighting of a vessel within 4,000 yards, what if Waddle had looked longer and harder during his pre-surfacing periscope check.

The sonar technician who neglected to report the vessel sighting shrugged off responsibility, claiming he did not see it.

Others agonized over what might have been.

"I'm in denial, I guess. I saw what I saw, and what I saw told me that these guys were distant," said Petty Officer 1st Class Robert Reyes, a sonar operator. "On any given day I would have done it the same way, and this happened. I second-guess myself thousands of times: Did I drop the ball? What if I'd done this?"

Capt. Robert Brandhuber, chief of staff for the U.S. Pacific Fleet's submarine force and the senior officer aboard that day, remembers looking through the periscope after the collision and seeing two boys on the ship.

"I didn't understand how it happened," he said. "It just wasn't something that I ever wanted to see -- and ever want to see again."

Waddle, says his wife, "relives looking through the periscope a lot."

The men of the Greeneville are known to be a close-knit group. They have been seen working out since the accident, running together in their "USS Greeneville" T-shirts. Some have been talking to Navy chaplains as they try to work out feelings of remorse.

Master Chief Douglas Coffman, whose job it is to watch out for the crew's welfare, has had a hard time explaining to his men what went wrong.

"I just tell them it was a terrible, tragic accident," he testified. "Act of God? I don't know. We have everybody and his brother down there telling us what we should have done and what we need to do."