Search Continues While NTSB Interviews Sub Crew

Bush Orders Policy Review Of Civilians In Military Exercises

National Transportation Safety Board officials said Thursday that they will interview all of the civilians onboard the USS Greeneville when it rammed into a Japanese fishing vessel Friday. They said that most of the 16 guests have gone back to the mainland. At least two of the guests live in Hawaii Kai. USS Greenville

Commissioned: Feb. 16, 1996

Los Angeles-class attack nuclear submarine

Homeported in Pearl Harbor in March 1997

Max crew: 130

Specs:

499 tons

190.8 feet long

30.5 feet wide

Max crew: 76

Keoki Kerr Reports
Fund Scam Warning Japanese Outraged Over Sub Revelation

Should The Navy Release The Civilians' Names?

U.S. Navy Statement

How A Sub Works
U.S. Pacific Fleet Greenville Incident Web Page Search Area U.S.S Greeneville
Pacific Cmdr. Submarine Hawaii Navy

NTSB officials said that they expect those interviews to take about a week. They announced that they are about half way through interviewing the crew of the USS Greeneville. NTSB officials said that they would interview Cmdr. Scott Waddle last. Waddle was reassigned following the incident. U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy teams continued the search for nine missing crewmembers of the Japanese boat which was sunk by a U.S. submarine Friday. Coast Guard officials said that the search is being continued until further notice at the request of Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori. Coast Guard officials also said that ocean waters were too choppy to send the submersible robot to investigate the sunken remains of the Ehime Maru Friday. The Navy said that they plan to put the Greeneville into dry dock next week to examine the damage. Defense Review President Bush is anxious for a Defense Department review of all policies regarding civilians in military exercises. Bush said that until the review is complete, he doesn't want to comment on the collision of a U-S submarine with a Japanese fishing boat off Hawaii. However, Bush said that the United States is doing everything it can concerning the incident. He's repeating his apologies to the Japanese prime minister - saying the nation is "deeply sorry" about the accident. In Japan, residents of the homeport village of the Japanese fishing vessel Ehime Maru, said that it sounds like the crew of the USS Greeneville was "fooling around." The nine missing people are still missing and presumed drowned. Civilian At Helm A civilian who was on the Navy submarine that struck the Ehime Maru said Thursday that he pulled levers for the ascent drill but had a crew member right beside him. He also described how the ship "shuddered'' at the impact. "I was to the left in the control room, and I was asked by the captain if I would like the opportunity to pull the levers that start the procedure that's called the blowdown,'' John Hall said. "I said, `Sure, I'd love to do that,'" he said. Hall said that the nearest crew member was "right next to me, elbow to elbow. I mean, what's important to know here is you don't do anything on this vessel without someone either showing you how to do it, telling you how to do it, or escorting you around.'' Hall said that he pulled the ballast-control levers that sent the attack submarine Greeneville streaking toward the ocean surface and said that the crew member helped him to firmly secure the levers back in place. The NTSB said Thursday that Hall's account appeared to differ slightly from the version of events given to it by the Navy. "The qualified Navy crewman, the chief of the watch, had his hands on top of the civilians hands throughout the procedure," NTSB investgator John Hammerschmidt said of the Navy's account. "If I heard the interview correctly, (Hall said) it was just part of the procedure." The 16 civilians who were onboard the Greeneville were all big donors to the USS Missouri Restoration Fund, Washington sources told KITV4 News. At least two of them were from Hawaii, KITV4 News reporter Keoki Kerr has learned. Greeneville visitors

Sources said that Michael "Mickey" Nolan, who visited the submarine with his wife Susan (both pictured, right), helped organize a charity golf tournament at Pearl Country Club last year which benefited the USS Missouri. Susan Nolan told KITV4 News on Thursday that she and her husband were the only guests from Hawaii on board the Greeneville. The others were from the mainland, Nolan said. She also said that she expects to be interviewed by the NTSB in the next week. The civilian guests were escorted on the Greeneville by Capt. Robert Brandhuber, the chief of staff of the Pacific Submarine Force. He is second in command to the admiral in charge of what's called Comsubpac or Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet. Nine people, four of them Japanese high school students, were still missing. The Coast Guard said that it could call off the search for them as early as Thursday. Another civilian, Todd Thoman, said that a periscope was "most definitely'' used to check the ocean surface before the drill Friday. "We came up to periscope depth and another member of the crew took the periscope up and made two complete rotations at 360 degrees,'' Thoman said. The captain of the submarine, Cmdr. Scott Waddle, made his own check through the periscope, Thoman said. "We saw no vessel and at that point he said `OK' and he brought the periscope down and we proceeded with the maneuver,'' he said. Said Hall: "Everything they do involves a procedure. I recall the captain, after he had done his periscope, I recall him calling out ... or a lot of crewmen calling out to him that they had gone through their procedure and the procedures were OK.'' As the submarine surged upward, Hall said, "there was a very loud noise and the entire submarine shuddered.'' According to him, Waddle said "Jesus, what the hell was that?'' and looked out the periscope and saw the Ehime Maru. "Everybody at that point was in shock,'' Hall said. Waddle has been relieved of duty pending the outcome of the investigation. On Wednesday, the Navy acknowledged that the Greeneville was about 3,000 yards east of a submarine test and trial area when it surfaced underneath the Japanese vessel. The Navy initially had said that the submarine was within the 56-square-mile training area designated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and marked on nautical charts to caution commercial and recreational craft. The captain of the submarine, Cmdr. Scott Waddle, made his own check through the periscope, Thoman said. "We saw no vessel and at that point he said `OK' and he brought the periscope down and we proceeded with the maneuver,'' he said. Said Hall: "Everything they do involves a procedure. I recall the captain, after he had done his periscope, I recall him calling out ... or a lot of crewmen calling out to him that they had gone through their procedure and the procedures were OK.'' As the submarine surged upward, Hall said, "there was a very loud noise and the entire submarine shuddered.'' According to him, Waddle said "Jesus, what the hell was that?'' and looked out the periscope and saw the Ehime Maru. "Everybody at that point was in shock,'' Hall said. On Wednesday, the Navy acknowledged that the Greeneville was about 3,000 yards east of a submarine test and trial area when it surfaced underneath the Japanese vessel. The Navy initially had said that the submarine was within the 56-square-mile training area designated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and marked on nautical charts to caution commercial and recreational craft. Lt. Cmdr. Conrad Chun, a Pacific Fleet spokesman, stressed that the charts serve only as an advisory and submarines are not restricted to that area. The Navy has refused to disclose the identities of the 16 civilians visiting on board the Greeneville. It has said they are civic and business officials. The Navy has a longstanding tradition of taking civilians such as relatives of crewmen, Navy supporters and journalists aboard its ships.

Chun said that Friday's civilian tour had been arranged by a former commander of U.S. military forces in the Pacific, retired Adm. Richard Macke (pictured right). Chun said that Macke, as a battleship USS Missouri volunteer, had referred the group of business leaders for the tour but had been unable to join them. "The Navy receives referrals from a wide range of organizations and individuals,'' Chun said. "It is not uncommon to receive referrals from retired military members.'' Macke was forced to apply for early retirement in 1996 after he suggested that three U.S. servicemen who rented a car to allegedly abduct and rape a 12-year-old girl in Okinawa, Japan, should have hired a prostitute instead. Macke is now Pacific Region president for Wheat International Communications Corp., of Vienna, Va. He didn't return telephone calls to his office or home. Investigators will continue interviewing the submarine's crew before deciding whether to interview the civilian guests, Hammerschmidt said. He said that one of those guest had been allowed to flip the ballast activation levers, an action that pushes air through the ballast tanks and sends water rushing out to raise the submarine rapidly to the surface. The submarine's chief of the watch stood next to the civilian and had his hand intertwined with the civilian's as the levers were pulled, he said. The submarine's helmsman, who controls the vertical movement and direction of the submarine, stood over the other civilian, Hammerschmidt said. The Ehime Maru was on a two-month training trip with students from Uwajima Fisheries High School in southwest Japan. On Wednesday, 15 crew members returned home; the fishing vessel's captain remains in Hawaii. Previous Stories: