Waddle urged civilians to tell the truth

Civilians who were aboard the USS Greeneville were transported to shore after the accident

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The day after the USS Greeneville slammed into a Japanese research vessel, Cmdr. Scott Waddle urged the 16 civilians who had been aboard the submarine to tell investigators the truth about what happened.

The National Transportation Safety Board released transcripts Wednesday of interviews conducted with 14 of the civilians aboard the nuclear submarine in the days following the February 9 accident. Nine of the 35 people who were aboard the Ehime Maru are missing and presumed dead.

The civilians were unstinting in their praise of Waddle's professionalism and courtesy. Waddle even remembered to hand out souvenir pictures to his guests as they left the sub, they said.

VIDEO Waddle spoke to the press after the hearing Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori traveled to the site where the Greeneville struck the Ehime Maru Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) CNN's Martin Savidge has more on the testimony of Cmdr. Scott Waddle Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)     ALSO Inquiry uncovers numerous deficiencies aboard USS Greeneville

" 'Listen, this is an international incident. It's a tragedy and I don't know what's going to happen from here. But I will tell you that you need to just tell the truth, not embellish the truth,' " civilian John Hall told the NTSB, quoting Waddle the morning after the accident. " 'Only say what you saw and actually happened. And tell the truth.' "

Hall said it was clear Waddle "had unbelievable grief and sorrow. You could see it," he said, adding that the Greeneville's crew "took on a demeanor of being shook up, too."

In separate interviews, the civilians recounted the harrowing events before and after the accident, describing a loud boom when the ship was hit and how solemn silence fell over the sub.

They said they saw images of the Japanese ship sinking on monitors in the submarine.

Crew members quickly escorted the civilians out of the control room, through the mess hall and into the ward room where they were given periodic updates about what was happening.

Some civilians said crew members grabbed life jackets and other safety equipment and began setting up an area as a potential emergency room.

Guest Anthony Schnur said Waddle addressed his crew after the crash, saying " 'I understand that the adrenaline might be pump, pump, pumping. Take a deep breath, Settle down. You've been trained for this. You're the best, let's do this right' ... that kind of thing."

Hall, who was one of three civilians at the Greeneville's controls, said the guests were initially told that it appeared everyone aboard the Ehime Maru had been rescued.

"We were all elated," he said. "And then it couldn't have been 10 minutes more and they come back and said: No, there was 35 on board. There's only 26 in the lifeboat. We're missing nine.

"And you just went right to, you know, your emotions went straight down to the bottom then."

Another civilian, Catherine Graham Wyatt, said she was struggling with news reports that the civilians posed a distraction to the crew.

Waddle is accused of negligent homicide, dereliction of duty and placing the sub in a hazardous situation

"This is kind of a matter on my conscience to know if we were a distraction," she told the NTSB investigator. "I hope and pray that we were not. I'm not a crew member. I don't know if we were."

Waddle, 41, Lt. j.g. Michael Coen, 26, and Lt. Cmdr. Gerald Pfeifer, 38, could face courts martial as a result of a court of inquiry that finished its hearing into the accident Tuesday. Waddle is accused of negligent homicide, dereliction of duty and placing the submarine in a hazardous situation -- suspected offenses that could result in a maximum 30 years in prison.

Other details also emerged from the interviews: Civilians crawled into a torpedo tube at one point before the accident, they had escorts at all times and pictures were allowed on the sub, but only after asking permission.

The civilians steadfastly refuted reports that alcohol was served on the sub. Hall said he knew for a fact no alcoholic beverages were served because "Boy, could we have used a drink" in the hours after the accident.

Jack Clary, another civilian at the sub controls, said he heard a thud when the sub surfaced and wasn't quite sure what the noise was. But he said he knew something had gone wrong when he heard Waddle shout out, "Christ, what the hell was that."

The USS Greeneville slammed into a Japanese fishing trawler on February 9

Within seconds, he said a crewman "just pretty much tossed me out of the seat, just pushed me out, you know, so he could sit down."

He said when he was being escorted through the mess hall, he saw a video monitor that "showed the Japanese ship in trouble in the sense that it was down at the water line. The water was almost up to a railing."

Many civilians wept when they were in the torpedo room.

"We were all in a state of shock," said Clary, who was on the submarine with his wife.

Susan Schnur, Anthony Schnur's wife, recalled that Waddle apologized to his guests after the crash and told them, "I wasn't supposed to be that way. It was supposed to be a lot of fun."

She was impressed that Waddle, some hours after the crash, remembered an earlier promise to give his guests pictures. A few hours after the crash, "he said 'I know you're going to think I'm crazy for thinking about this, but I haven't forgotten about the things that I promised you and that's part of what I do,' " Schnur said.

Commander denied immunity in sub inquiry
March 19, 2001
Families of missing ask sub skipper to not seek immunity
March 17, 2001
Sub crewman: Not given 'enough time' to check data
March 16, 2001
Greeneville skipper apologizes to Ehime Maru captain
March 14, 2001
Navy sub collision inquiry gets first eyewitness testimony
March 13, 2001
U.S. Navy may OK attempt to raise Japanese ship
March 12, 2001
Sub skipper's family speaks out about collision
March 11, 2001

NTSB transcripts: Greeneville/Ehime Maru 031201
U.S. Coast Guard
CINCPACFLT :: USS Greeneville (SSN 772) incident
City of Uwajima's memorial site
U.S. Navy
 • CINCPACFLT statement on the USS Greeneville incident
 • Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet
 • USS Greeneville

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.