Thomas Fargo News

The U.S. Navy guided-missile cruiser Chancellorsville will visit Qingdao, China, in August as part of a series of such visits between the two countries, the Defense Department said. The announcement of the Aug. 2-5 visit followed a statement by Washington and Beijing that Chinese warships will soon visit Hawaii and Seattle. Defense Secretary William Cohen visited China this month as the two countries renewed military-to-military ties following a freeze after the 1999 bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade by U.S. warplanes during NATO's air campaign against Serbia. The Pentagon said the visit by the Chancellorsville, based in Yokosuka, Japan, to Qingdao will coincide with a July 31-Aug. 5 visit to Beijing and Qingdao by Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

The U.S. Navy on Sunday showed relatives of the nine missing people from a Japanese trawler sunk by a surfacing American submarine a video of the wreck, but there were no signs of remains. The video, taken by a deep-diving robot that located the Ehime Maru on the ocean floor, showed a ghostly pale ship against the black emptiness of the deep, but nothing else. The Ehime Maru, which was struck by the USS Greeneville as the fast-attack submarine made an emergency surfacing maneuver on Feb. 9, was sitting nearly upright on the ocean floor about 9 miles (14 km) off Diamond head on Oahu. The Navy's remotely operated submersible Scorpio II located the Ehime Maru late in about 2,000 ft. (610 m) of water off the coast of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean.

As hopes of finding survivors faded, anguished relatives of the nine Japanese missing after a surfacing U.S. submarine sank their trawler off Hawaii pleaded to have the wreck raised so they could discover if it was the tomb of their loved ones. The request -- also being pushed strongly by the Japanese government -- was forwarded to top U.S. government officials, but a key investigator said he saw no reason at present to recover the 499-ton Ehime Maru from its watery grave 1,800 ft. (548 m) below the ocean surface. Addressing reporters on Sunday night for the first time since arriving in Hawaii, National Transportation Safety Board investigator John Hammerschmidt said he did not believe it was necessary to bring the ship up to discover accident details…

The U.S. Navy's official inquiry into the fatal collision of the USS Greeneville and a Japanese fishing trawler will closely scrutinize the actions of a fourth officer on board the submarine, who held senior rank over the vessel's captain. Capt. Bob Brandhuber, chief of staff for the Pacific Submarine Forces, was the host of civilian guests on board the sub when the accident occurred. He has not been named alongside three Greeneville officers as a subject of a court of inquiry, but will almost certainly be called as a witness, the sources told Reuters. The court of inquiry was convened for March 5 to determine whether disciplinary action should be taken against any or all of the officers named as subjects, and could ultimately lead to a court martial.

The U.S. Navy opened a formal inquiry on Monday into the ramming of a Japanese trawler by a nuclear submarine, trying to answer questions about an accident that killed nine people and marred America’s relationship with Japan. The navy’s Court of Inquiry could also lead to a court martial for three or more officers of the USS Greeneville who will be asked to explain how they failed to notice the 190-ft. (58-m) fishing boat before surfacing off Diamond Head near Honolulu. The fast-attack sub is equipped with state-of-the-art sonar, and published reports have said the Greeneville’s crew was aware of a ship in the vicinity before surfacing. The Greeneville was practicing emergency maneuvers on Feb.

A U.S. Navy court of inquiry into the submarine-trawler collision off Hawaii in which nine Japanese were killed has recommended measures that would probably end the submarine commander's career but would spare him a court martial, a Navy official said on Sunday. The official said that the recommendations, if implemented, meant Cmdr. The Navy official said the panel's recommendations would also spare the other two officers charged in the accident, Lt. Cmdr. Gerald Pfeifer and Lt. Michael Coen, from court martial. The 2,000-page report by the court of inquiry, composed of three Navy admirals, was delivered to Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Thomas Fargo on Friday, and it is up to Fargo to decide what action to take, if any, within 30 days.

Japanese officials on Friday were disappointed after U.S. naval officers failed to shed light on whether the captain of a submarine that sank a Japanese fishing trawler, leaving nine lost at sea, would be court martialed. A team of U.S. naval officers visited local officials and families of the nine people, including four teenage fisheries students, lost after the USS Greeneville surfaced into and sank the Ehime Maru off Hawaii on February 9. The commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet is prepared to order the captain and a key enlisted man to undergo disciplinary hearings but not courts-martial for their roles in the accident, a navy official in Honolulu said on Thursday.