What were peoples reaction of the USS Greenville Submarine Disaster?

Answer 1

Pretty much what you'd expect with any incident involving a nuclear submarine, though in my own and other Sailors' opinions the punishment was too light. The Naval officers in charge essentially had their careers ended, apologies all around, full restitution to the Japanese from the U.S., full investigations by the Navy / NTSB with Japanese officials observing, etc. I and other former submariners are more concerned with the number of accidents; there have been more in the last 11 years than during the entire Cold War. To myself and others, it's an indication of how lax crews have become. We didn't tolerate screwups in the Submarine Force during the Cold War.

In the Greenville's case, she was carrying civilians on a "dog & pony show", which having done them in the past, is nothing short of a major PITA. It's one thing when you have civilian contractors riding aboard or the annual midshipman cruise, but regular civilians are a major distraction, even with normal crew complement aboard in safe waters. In my time they would never allow civilians into the areas they were during the Greenville's cruise.

When I first learned of it, I assumed that it had been an undetected contact that had appeared close aboard upon reaching periscope depth, which is a submarine's most vulnerable point, during the transition. Apparently that wasn't the case; after reading formal report, there's no question that the CO, Control Room crew, and Sonar Room blew it. As a former Submarine Sonarman myself, I couldn't believe that they didn't realize how close aboard the Ehime Maru was. It's one thing if you don't detect it and ocean thermal conditions don't allow you to hear a target until you're coming to PD and it's suddenly close aboard as you pass the thermocline. It's another completely when you've tracked it previously and blow the range estimate upon re-acquisition of target.

I think one of the biggest problems today on the 688's and newer boats (even though the Greenville used the same Sonar Suite I was qualified on) is that Sonarman today tend to use their displays more than their ears. I was fortunate to both train on and use analog and digital Sonar systems, and with analog systems we had to use our ears exclusively, since we didn't have a display - just a bearing ring.

I think also that the reason the accident brought more scrutiny than most is that there were a lot of students killed on the Ehime Maru. It's one thing if you're a sailor - being at sea comes with accepted risks to life as part of the gig. Students, however, aren't professional sailors, and that fact compounded an already bad situation.