Submarine Commander Reprimanded

April 23, 2001 -- 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.

"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.

"The reason for these two causes is quite clear," Fargo said. Waddle "created an artificial sense of urgency in preparation for surfacing … when prudent seamanship, the safety of his submarine and good judgment dictated otherwise."

Fargo said the court's report did not find any evidence of criminal intent or deliberate misconduct on the part of Waddle or his crew. Because of this and because Waddle accepted full responsibility for the accident, Fargo said he was not recommending a general court-martial.

Punishment Enough?

The decision not to have Waddle face a court-martial has angered many Japanese, but Gittins had threatened to appeal if any punishment was imposed.

"If we believe there are grounds for an appeal if punishment is imposed, you can be sure we will pursue the appeal," he said.

Earlier, Gittins had made statements that seemed to imply that if Waddle were to go to a court-martial, Gittins would question the Navy's "distinguished visitor" program. The collision occurred when Waddle was participating in the Navy's practice of taking civilians and military dependents out on Navy vessels.

Waddle has said that he was distracted by the civilians.

In his statement, Fargo said the investigation revealed that none of the civilians — including the three who participated at controls — "directly contributed to the collision."

Still, Fargo said he was taking steps to tighten the civilian program. Besides calling for fleet commanders to personally approve civilian embarkments, Fargo said he was recommending that civilians not be in key positions during any critical procedure.

The bodies of the four students and five adults killed in the accident have not been recovered.