By
The Associated Press
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii - His voice brimming with emotion, an officer of the Navy submarine that rammed a Japanese trawler apologized as an inquiry into the deadly accident neared its end.
"To the families of those who perished and to the crew of the Ehime Maru ... I humbly apologize," Lt. j.g. Michael Coen said Monday. "Although I cannot comprehend the unimaginable grief you must feel, I want you to know that you are in my thoughts and prayers at all times and you will be for the rest of my life."
Coen, 26, is one of three officers of the USS Greeneville under investigation over the Feb. 9 sinking of the Ehime Maru. The Greeneville smashed into the Japanese fishing vessel while demonstrating a rapid-surfacing drill for 16 civilians. Nine people, including four teen-age boys, were killed.
Coen read his unsworn statement to three admirals presiding over the Navy's court of inquiry. Attorneys for another officer, Lt. Cmdr. Gerald Pfeifer, submitted a written statement that was not released to the public.
Closing arguments in the inquiry were expected to begin yesterday. The presiding admirals gave the Greeneville's skipper - Cmdr. Scott Waddle - and his attorneys until yesterday morning to decide whether he would address the court.
Waddle's civilian attorney, Charles Gittins, has said Waddle would testify only if prosecutors agreed not to use his testimony against him. Waddle's request for immunity was denied Monday.
The inquiry has focused on whether Waddle rushed preparations for surfacing, and whether he performed an inadequate periscope search before taking the Greeneville up.
Waddle, Pfeifer and Coen could face courts-martial.
Once the inquiry concludes, the panel will produce a report of its findings and recommend whether the officers should be punished. The report goes to Adm. Thomas Fargo, who has up to 30 days to review it and take final action.
Earlier Monday, a crewman who tracks surface ships admitted he violated orders requiring him to report ships nearby. He also said he failed to notice another vessel was dangerously close to the submarine just six minutes before the collision.
Petty Officer 1st Class Patrick Seacrest told the court he never noticed the ship's close range because he was analyzing another sonar contact. That contradicted earlier testimony by a Navy investigator, who said he thought Seacrest was aware of the close contact but didn't report it because civilians blocked his access to officers.
Seacrest, who was granted immunity for his testimony, laid out a series of assumptions and errors that contributed to the collision.
As fire-control technician, Seacrest's job was to take sonar data and analyze it to establish the location and distance of other vessels. He was supposed to manually plot that data on a graphic display inside the sub's control room.
Seacrest admitted that he stopped plotting the data without informing officers.
As Coen and Waddle prepared to go to periscope depth before the surfacing drill, Seacrest was analyzing three surface contacts, labeled Sierra 12, 13 and 14. He said he was focused on Sierra 14, and didn't notice that the range of Sierra 13 had plunged from 15,000 yards to 4,000 yards.
Sierra 13 was the Ehime Maru.
Seacrest said he didn't have time to examine all the contacts because the submarine went to periscope depth for only 80 seconds before it went deep and began to surface. He admitted, however, that tracking three contacts is not difficult and that he should have noticed the new range and reported it to officers.
He added that Waddle reported he had a "good feel for the contact picture" before going to periscope depth, leading Seacrest to believe the skipper had enough information to perform a proper search.
"In the cold light of day," asked Rear Adm. Paul Sullivan, "how do you feel you did?"
"Poorly," said Seacrest.
