Navy rules out trip
by Waddle to Japan

It advises him that Japanese
officials say that the timing is
not right for a visit now

---

By Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.com

Retiring Navy Cmdr. Scott Waddle, whose nuclear submarine rammed and sank a Japanese vessel killing nine people more than six months ago, will not visit Japan before he retires Sept. 30, the Navy says.

The Navy said Waddle, who will be allowed to retire as a Navy commander with his 20-year pension intact, will not be going to Japan because officials there have "indicated on several occasions that the time was not right for him" to make the visit.

The Navy said it does not know whether Waddle will visit Ehime prefecture to visit Uwajima, where the 190-foot vessel Ehime Maru was home-ported, after he leaves the service. It is assumed that such a trip would have to be paid for by Waddle.

"The Navy will offer its support by serving as a liaison between him and the Japanese government should he so desire," a Pacific Fleet spokesman said.

However, Charles W. Gittins, Waddle's attorney, said last month that he would not advise Waddle to visit Japan once he left the Navy since he no longer would have the protection of the military.

Waddle's submarine, USS Greeneville, surfaced under the hull of the Ehime Maru Feb. 9 nine miles south of Diamond Head. The Ehime Maru sank within minutes, and the bodies of nine people, including four teenage students from the Uwajima Fisheries School, have not been found.

Waddle was removed as skipper of the Greeneville a day after the collision. He faced a rare Navy court of inquiry at Pearl Harbor and was reprimanded April 23 at an admiral's mast, an administrative hearing, conducted by Adm. Thomas Fargo, Pacific Fleet commander.

Waddle, who was at the helm of the Greeneville at the time of the collision, was stripped of his command and given a reprimand. However, the secretary of the Navy approved earlier this month Waddle's request to retire, drawing a full pension of at least $34,740 a year.

Since last month the Navy has tried to raise the 830-ton Ehime Maru from where it sits on the ocean floor 2,000 feet below the surface, so it can be moved to shallower waters where divers can search for the nine missing men and boys.