# THIS makes me feel proud! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 11, 2001, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-makes-me-feel-proud/61636 "2001-04-11T20:59:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Vestal\_Blue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5e9695/32.png) [@Vestal\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vestal_Blue)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2001, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-makes-me-feel-proud/61636/1 "2001-04-11T20:59:08Z")
Norfolk Virginian-Pilot March 22, 2001 **Sub’s Crew Defies Odds By Accepting Responsibility** By Kerry Dougherty, The Virginian-Pilot Once in a while you see something on the nightly news that stops you in your tracks. You can’t believe your eyes - or your ears. You see people squaring their shoulders and saying things like “My mistake,” “It was all my fault” and “I’m sorry.” In testimony before the court of inquiry investigating the February sinking of a Japanese fishing trawler by an American submarine off the coast of Hawaii, there has been some astonishing behavior. The television cameras have recorded it all. Take this exchange: “It was only a six-hour cruise,” one of the examiners said to the man in charge of the Greeneville’s radar tracking. “You got lazy didn’t you, Petty Officer Seacrest?” “Yes sir,” Patrick Seacrest replied. Not "Yes, but . . . " Not “Well, it really wasn’t my fault.” Not, “Maybe, but the civilians on board were distracting me.” Just, “Yes sir.” For some reason, it reminded me of a less-noble moment in recent television history: Bill Clinton shaking his crooked finger at the camera and saying “I did not have sex with that woman.” We live in a country that from 1992 to 2000 saw a president and his wife duck all responsibility for their actions. “I’m sorry” was not in their vocabularies. It is in the lexicon of the submarine’s skipper. Cmdr. Scott Waddle ignored his lawyers and arranged recently to meet privately with the families of the nine dead Japanese students. According to the families, Waddle apologized profusely to them. He embraced them. He wept with them. After the encounter, the father of one of the Japanese boys said that Waddle’s heartfelt remarks took away his anger. Somehow, seeing the tears and the pain and the grief and the guilt of the naval officer helped him realize that it wasn’t some unrepentant American behemoth that had killed his son. It was just a man. Waddle didn’t stop there. On Tuesday, again defying his lawyers, Waddle took the witness stand. His appearance before the court of inquiry shocked observers because he did it without the immunity from prosecution that his lawyers had sought and that others had gained. Waddle said he testified because, “It was the right thing to do.” I’ll bet that the people who actually knew Waddle were not at all surprised. This commander and his crew are breaking all the rules. They aren’t hiding behind their attorneys. They aren’t engaging in mass finger pointing. They don’t appear preoccupied with saving their own skins. They do, however, seem determined to set the record straight. And to say they’re sorry. That takes guts. In the course of the inquiry it has become clear that these men made mistakes that awful day in February. A frightening series of avoidable, deadly mistakes. But the culprits are behaving better than the Navy itself did in the aftermath of the deadly Iowa explosion. Navy brass then attempted to pin the blame on a single sailor whom the service accused of being a homosexual. The men of the Greeneville are also behaving far more honorably than their former commander in chief. Unlike Clinton, the officers of the Greeneville will pay for their mistakes. They could face court-martials. They may also face civil actions. Their candid remarks will work against them later, which is why their lawyers have been trying to shut them up. They don’t seem to care. They want to tell the truth. The tragic story of the Greeneville is destined for the history books. My hope is that someone, somewhere, will also record the remarkable conduct of the commander and crew in accepting blame for the accident. One thing is certain. Though the careers of the men of the Greeneville are in tatters, their character is not. ---
**Author:** ![Arden\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b487fb/32.png) [@Arden\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arden_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2001, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-makes-me-feel-proud/61636/2 "2001-04-11T21:27:01Z")
It’s good to see what our servicemen are really made of. Makes one damn proud to be an American. Thanks for sharing that **Vestal Blue**. ---
**Author:** ![purrplebear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/90ced4/32.png) [@purrplebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purrplebear)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2001, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-makes-me-feel-proud/61636/3 "2001-04-11T23:20:36Z")
What they said. _\_ Thanks, **VB** , for sharing that reminder of what our country was founded on. ---
**Author:** ![Mnementh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/898d66/32.png) [@Mnementh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mnementh)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2001, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-makes-me-feel-proud/61636/4 "2001-04-12T01:40:07Z")
I got one thing to say about that. It’s about damn time people started being honest! This is great. Now, if we can just spread a little honour and human decency to the rest of the human race, the world will be a hell of a lot better to live in. ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2001, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-makes-me-feel-proud/61636/5 "2001-04-12T02:15:20Z")
Thank you for that story, VB. I am proud of those men and the ideals they so nobly represent. I notice that the sailors aren’t engaging in scapegoat or pointing fingers, unlike certain, oh, I dunno, conservatives, who honestly believe that if they keep screaming about Clinton, we won’t realise that the current guy is a boob. Sullied an otherwise fine article.