Cmdr. Scott Waddle He's "not looking back," his lawyer says

USS Greeneville’s skipper
moves on after accident

Each year, the Star-Bulletin recognizes 10 people who made a difference over the past 12 months. Whether deserving of honor or controversy, the criterion is that they made a profound impact on Hawaii. Here is the sixth notable individual.

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By Christine Donnelly
cdonnelly@starbulletin.com

The instant the USS Greeneville slammed into the Japanese fishing vessel Ehime Maru off Oahu on Feb. 9, Cmdr. Scott Waddle's Navy career was over, even if it took months for that fact to be made official.

Nine of the 35 Japanese men and boys aboard died when the Ehime Maru, a floating classroom for a Japanese fisheries school, sank minutes after being hit from below by the nuclear attack submarine. The sub had been demonstrating a flashy surfacing maneuver for 16 visiting civilians aboard.

Waddle was removed as skipper the day after the collision and eventually reprimanded in a Navy inquiry that found the accident solely his submarine's fault. But the inquiry found no evidence of criminal intent or deliberate misconduct, and Waddle was not court-martialed.

CHIEF PETTY OFFICER ANDREW MCKASLE / NOVEMBER 2001 U.S. Navy divers swam alongside the Ehime Maru during recovery operations off Honolulu Airport's reef runway.

Before the accident, Waddle, 42, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, was seen as a shining star on track for promotion. Afterward, he was seen by some supporters as a scapegoat for a Navy that expected its charismatic submarine commander to wow influential guests and by some critics as a self-serving insider who got off with a slap on the wrist, allowed to retire with an honorable discharge and his pension intact.

Either way, Waddle has gone on with his life. He left Hawaii and the Navy in October, having worked a desk job since the accident. He chose a civilian job from among several good offers and is doing well on the mainland with his wife, Jill, and their daughter, said Charles W. Gittins, the lawyer who represented him in the military inquiry.

"He's just plugging along and not looking back," said Gittins, who refused to specify what company Waddle worked for or the city he lived in "as a matter of privacy."

Waddle never did go to Uwajima in Ehime prefecture to apologize to the victims' families in person as he had wanted, Gittins said, because the Navy would not sponsor the trip.

Meanwhile, in Hawaii, the wreckage of the 830-ton Ehime Maru has been towed out to deep water and put to rest after divers spent 20 days combing the wreckage for bodies and victims' personal items. Remains of eight of the nine dead were found and returned to their families for cremation as part of a $60 million recovery effort by the U.S. Navy.

A memorial to the victims is to be built at Kakaako Waterfront Park. It will include one of the Ehime Maru's anchors, also salvaged from the deep.