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It
is now three weeks since the U.S. submarine Greeneville shot up
405 feet from the ocean depths and rammed a Japanese teaching
trawler, the Ehime Maru. Nine people on the trawler were
killed. Four were teenagers.
From
the start the question was: how could the sub commander not know
there was a ship nearby? Especially since this was a nuclear submarine.
How could the commander not check thoroughly before performing
a dangerous emergency procedure, a "rapid ascent"?
For
two weeks the Navy stonewalled. Information emerged in dribs and
drabs. We learned there were civilians on board, but the Navy
said: so what?
"Adm.
FARGO: These embarkations for civilian people are very routine,
and they would not affect the procedures that we use to surface
the submarine in any way, shape or form." (CBS EVENING
NEWS, February 11, 2001)
Routine?
One of the civilians went on TV and with cheerful idiocy revealed
that he had actually been at the controls when the sub hit –
but:
"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."
(Washington
Post,
2-15-2001)
The
presence of a group of 16 oil executives and their wives on board
was dismissed in the press as no big deal:
"The
Navy routinely invites dignitaries aboard its vessels to bolster
public support for its missions. In 1999 the Pacific Fleet's
subs hosted 1,132 civilians on 45 trips."(Time,
February 26, 2001)
There's
that word "routine" again. The implications of routinely
allowing 'dignitaries' (i.e., oil executives) to handle nuclear
submarines during dangerous procedures for the sake of Public
Relations were apparently lost on the mass media. As George Szamuely
wrote:
"The
idea is to show off our military wares to wealthy, ignorant
but self-important civilians with a view to winning their support
for even more lavish funding of the Pentagon. So dazzled are
the visitors by all the high-tech gadgets on display, by the
death-defying skills of our servicemen, and by the elaborate
military maneuvers worthy of a Hollywood summer blockbuster
that they become ardent lobbyists for the military." ("What
if they sank an American ship" by George Szamuely.)
And
the question remained, nagging: how could the commander of that
submarine not check thoroughly before performing this "rapid
ascent"? What was happening on that submarine?
Why
didn't they see the ship? The answer came: they did.
"Sonar
crew on the submarine USS Greeneville detected the
Japanese fishing boat Ehime Maru 71 minutes before
the submarine collided with the vessel while surfacing, the
Navy has told the US National Transportation Safety Board."
(London
Times,
2-21-2001)
But
if a sonar operator spotted the ship 71 minutes before the collision
why didn't he spot it again just prior to the 'rapid ascent'?
"Board
member John Hammerschmidt also said late yesterday that the
crew member responsible for tracking sonar contacts stopped
performing that task within an hour of the collision because
of the presence of 16 civilian guests in the submarine's control
room." (London
Times, 2-21-2001)
Would
the sonar operator of a nuclear-armed sub decide on his own that
"because of the presence of 16 civilian
guests in the submarine's control room" he was not going
to continue "tracking sonar contacts" and stop "performing
that task"? On a military vessel? And this is why the sub's
commander didn't know there was a ship nearby?
Common
sense suggests that a) A sonar operator who did this after spotting
a ship would be court-marshaled for gross negligence and b) the
sonar operator would surely go to jail if he failed to warn his
commander that he had seen a ship and c) in any case, why didn't
the commander thoroughly check before engaging in a dangerous
"rapid ascent?"
Now
comes a new revelation which indicates that the near-universal
description of this version of the incident was not accurate.
The following comes from the National Safety Board people investigating
the accident:
"The
190-foot fisheries training vessel was traveling in a south-southeast
direction at 11 knots (about 12 1/2 m.p.h.), nearly parallel
to the southbound course of the submerged 360-foot Greeneville.
"The
much-faster submarine passed the Ehime Maru but reversed course
to the north to prepare for an emergency surfacing drill. The
drill was a demonstration for 16 civilian guests aboard, the
Navy said.
"When
the vessels were about two miles apart, the Greeneville made
a series of zigzag turns, continuing in a north-northwest direction
before ascending to an initial periscope depth five minutes
before the impact. After 1 1/2 minutes at periscope depth, the
Greeneville descended, going in the same direction as the Ehime
Maru. It reached 405 feet in two minutes and turned northward.
"The
Greeneville then shot to the surface in 50 seconds, coming up
under the Ehime Maru, the NTSB data show. The submarine ripped
the bottom out of the Ehime Maru, which sank within minutes."
(Philadelphia
Inquirer, 3/3/01)
The
commander of the Greeneville stalked the Ehime Maru and positioned
his sub close to the trawler before ordering the "rapid ascent."
That is established fact.
The
only question now is: why? What was going on on the submarine
Greeneville?
One
Possible Scenario
There
were 16 guests on board the Greeneville that day. These were VIPS
– company execs and their wives. The trip had been arranged
by one Richard Macke, former Commander of the Pacific Fleet. Macke
was forced to resign his post following public outcry over an
amazing remark
he made when three US troops rented a car and kidnapped and raped
a 12 year old Okinawan girl.
The
VIPs he invited for a joy ride on the Greeneville were executives
who had made contributions to a fund to fix up the US Missouri,
the ship on which Japan surrendered in World War II.
Let's
try and imagine the scene. Here are important bigwigs the Captain
is trying to impress. The Captain spots this boat. He decides
to show what a sub can really do (even let a couple of the guests
"drive").
He
decides: Why not get real close to that ship and then perform
a rapid ascent maybe 100 yards away? Break out of the water. Make
a real show.
And
then he miscalculated.
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