Submarine Commander Reprimanded

April 23 -- The captain of the nuclear submarine that sank a Japanese fishing boat, killing nine people, received a letter of reprimand today and announced he would retire from the Navy.

Wearing dress whites and sunglasses, Cmdr. Scott Waddle, a 20-year Navy veteran, attended an "admiral's mast" disciplinary hearing in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

"This collision was solely the fault of the USS Greeneville. This tragic accident could and should have been avoided," said by Adm. Thomas Fargo, Pacific Fleetcommander, who convened the admiral's mast.

Fargo gave Waddle a letter of reprimand as punishment for the Feb. 9 accident, in which the USS Greeneville surfaced suddenly off Hawaii and rammed the Japanese fishing boat Ehime Maru. The admiral found Waddle guilty of derelictionof duty and negligent hazarding of a vessel.

Fargo apologized to the Japanese people for the accident. "Ultimately, this was an accident, a tragedy in which mistakes were made," Fargo said.

Waddle said he would retire by Oct. 1.

"While I regret that my Navy career has ended in this way, I know that I am one of the lucky ones because I survived the accident," he said in a statement released by his civilian attorney, Charles Gittins.

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"He will retire as commander, with full pension and with an honorable characterization of discharge," Gittins said over the weekend.

Gittins said Waddle is working toward a second career and a new life. Waddle is considering "a number of very good job offers," and possibly a move, he said.

Waddle earlier apologized and accepted responsibility for the collision. Gittins said Waddle would eventually travel to Japan to meet with the victims' families, but at the moment, he had no travel plans.

Artificial Sense of Urgency

Fargo released a 119-page report on the accident. Produced by a Naval Court of Inquiry, the report included more than 2,000 pages of supporting documents and testimony. The complete report was posted on the Web.

The accident occurred because of two fundamental causes, Fargo said. First, the Greeneville's crew failed to do an adequate acoustic or visual search before performing the emergency surfacing drill. Second, the submarine's watch team failed to work together or pass information to each other about the condition of the water's surface.