U.S.

Mum's The Word For Sub Captain

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

February 13, 2001 / 6:49 AM EST / CBS

The captain of the nuclear submarine that sank a Japanese fishing trawler won't talk to the National Transportation Safety Board until the Navy completes an inquiry into the accicdent.

NTSB investigators met with Cmdr. Scott Waddle over the weekend when he told them his lawyer recommended he only respond to written questions from the NTSB for the time being and only about search and rescue efforts, said NTSB spokesman Ted Lopatkiewisc.

USS Greeneville

One of 62 Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarines, considered the backbone of the Navy's submarine force.

360 feet long, 33 feet wide and displaces 6,900 tons submerged.

Uses sonar to listen for ships before surfacing and periscopes to visually inspect the area within about 25 feet of the surface.

Can strike targets above and below the water's surface.

Carries 16 officers and 126 crew.

Commanding officer at the time of the accident was Cmdr. Scott Waddle, of Austin, Texas.

Ship named for Greeneville, Tenn., which is named after Revolutionary War Gen. Nathanael Greene.

But the Navy has turned over to the NTSB the data collected by the USS Greeneville's sonar, which was tracking the sounds of ships on the surface. That same data was available to Waddle when he executed the emergency surfacing drill that led to the fatal collision.

At Pearl Harbor on Thursday, the Navy will begin a court of inquiry — its highest level of investigation — into the cause of the accident, as families in Japan continue to demand answers about what went wrong.

"The court of inquiry will provide a full and open accounting for the American and Japanese people," Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander of the Pacific Fleet, said of the probe.

Japan said that it wants the captain of the sunken fishing boat to take part in the inquiry. If the Navy agrees, CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin reports, the captain is likely to be among the first to hear the sub skipper's version of what happened.

The court of inquiry could result in a recommendation for courts-martial of the Greeneville's officers. The sub's commander, executive officer and officer of the deck have been named parties to the inquiry.

Waddle was reassigned to a staff position after the incident. The other wo Greeneville officers named were Lt. Cmdr. Gerald K. Pfeifer and Lt. Michael J. Coen.

Three Navy flag officers will make up the court and a flag officer of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force will be invited to participate as an adviser.

"The seriousness in which I view this tragic accident is reflected in the level of investigation and the seniority of the court members," Fargo said.

In a related development, Jack Clary, a civilian who was sitting at the steering control of the sub when it hit the trawler on Feb. 9, has provided CBS News with dramatic details of the accident.

"We heard a thud — and a second later, the captain said, 'What the hell was that?' " recalls Clary.

The collision happened while the Greeneville was conducting a surfacing drill off the coast of Hawaii. Of the fishermen, teachers and teenagers on the boat — on a fisheries training mission — nine people were killed and another 26 were thrown into the water but ultimately rescued.

In an exclusive interview with CBS News Correspondent John Roberts, Clary says a Navy yeoman's hands were on his, telling him what to do, all the time while his own hands were at the controls.

Clary says as soon as the submarine hit the boat, "the yeoman threw me out of the seat and took over."

Clary, a sportswriter who was part of a group of civilians aboard the sub, says the aftermath of the accident was "an eerie feeling." He says upon learning of the casualties among the Japanese, he and others who had been aboard the Greeneville were "shocked."

In addition to what may be a painful inquiry into the accident, the Navy is also faced ith the daunting task of recovering what remains of the fishing trawler from 1,800 feet of water. A deep-sea robot found the wreckage of the Japanese vessel, the Ehime Maru, on the Pacific Ocean floor, but the bodies have still not been recovered.

Videotape of the sunken vessel taken by robot submersibles shows the exterior of the vessel seemingly in pristine condition, with no signs of the nine missing.

The boat is sitting nearly upright at the bottom of the ocean, approximately 1,000 yards from the collision site.

Families of the missing — as well as the Japanese government — are pressing the United States to salvage the ship if that is the only way to recover the bodies that may be entombed in its hull.