NAVY INQUIRY MAY PROVIDE SOME ANSWERS

Over the weekend, the U.S. Navy announced it will conduct a court of inquiry into the actions of the three top officers of the USS Greeneville, the submarine that collided Feb. 9 with a Japanese fishing boat near Hawaii.

Among the questions the inquiry will try to answer is why two of the 16 civilians aboard the sub were at key controls when the sub made a rapid ascent and crashed into the 190-foot Ehime Maru, which quickly sank. Twenty-six people were rescued, but nine are still missing. The inquiry also will try to ascertain why the sub failed to see the fishing vessel.

The Navy has been anything but forthcoming with information about the deadly accident. Many Americans plus Japanese relatives of those missing from the fishing boat anxiously await some logical explanation.