Navy

A submarine-hunting surveillance ship will be christened today in Washington state, the Navy announced Tuesday. The ceremonies for the surveillance ship Bold will be at the Tacoma Boatbuilding shipyards in Tacoma, with Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) making the main speech.

Driven to desperation over Vickie Eddington's insistence on divorce and half the couple's property, Leonard Eddington brutally struck his wife in her bed "with one killing blow . . . all for greed," a prosecutor said Wednesday. Vickie Eddington was found buried in her Jamul back yard last December, 4 1/2 years after she disappeared during the evening she was to report to her nursing job. Her car had been found four miles from their home.

The commander of the U.S. attack submarine that collided with a Japanese trawler, killing nine people, will be formally asked to quit the Navy, an official said. Cmdr. Scott Waddle has been ordered to report to an "admiral's mast" administrative hearing today, the official said. Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, will discuss the findings of a court of inquiry--which urged Fargo to choose an administrative punishment--and Waddle's exit from the Navy.

Greg Clapper of Mission Viejo High School, a Times' all-county first-team linebacker, said he will attend Navy in the fall. Clapper, a three-year starter, also visited Princeton, Dartmouth, Penn and the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y. He plans to play at inside linebacker for Navy. Clapper, 6-foot-1, 205 pounds, had 96 tackles, including 56 solo tackles last season. He also was a first-team all-South Coast League soccer selection.

City officials are urging the U.S. Navy to use extreme caution when removing tons of contaminated soil from an old battery acid dump site near McGaugh Elementary School. "We're just saying, 'Hey, keep in mind there are 800 kids pretty close [to the clean-up site],' " said Lee Whittenberg, the city's director of development services. "I think they're going to be fairly careful, but we just wanted to go on the record that we had some concerns."

An explosive device that malfunctioned during a Navy training exercise is missing in the ocean near the Hotel del Coronado and could pose a danger should it wash up on the beach, officials said. The device is a time-delay demolition charge used to blow up enemy mines. The Navy said it was attached to a fake mine during an explosives drill 300 yards off the coast Friday. The primary charge exploded as intended but did not trigger a complete detonation. Officials said it would take great pressure and an ignition source for the device to explode, but anyone who comes across the explosive is asked to leave it alone and call 911.

Lucent's commercials are simple, understated and effective (Letters, Dec. 31). Lucent's typeface is more retro than out of date. As for the guy's monotone voice in the Lucent ad, he's reading his screen as he thinks/types--he's not performing Shakespeare. My only problem with its ads is that, after all these years, I still don't know what Lucent wants me to buy. As for Old Navy's commercials, they are supposed to be dorky. It's called "camp." PAUL SCHOWALTER Fullerton

The crew of a U.S. submarine made dozens of errors before the vessel collided with an American warship in the Persian Gulf, a Navy review has found. The accident exposed lax leaders who tolerated sleeping, slouching and a radio room rigged with music speakers, the review said. Navy investigators blamed the collision on the submarine's "ineffective and negligent command leadership," including what they called a lack of standards and failure to adequately prepare for navigating the busy Strait of Hormuz.

In the second day of the cross-examination of accused murderer Billy Ray Waldon, it was revealed that the primary reason Waldon was discharged from the Navy was because he suffered from severe depression. Deputy Dist. Atty. Mike Carpenter read from a Navy doctor's report that said Waldon suffered from "major depression with psychological features of melancholia." While stationed in Florida, Waldon spent time in the psychiatric ward of a military hospital.

I read with deep concern of decisions unfavorable to the use and modernization of the Surface Weapons Engineering Facility based partly on the Navy's unwillingness to have a non-Department of Defense person participate in a public exposure assessment and a sentiment that such participation would improve the trustworthiness of the data. For 65 years, the Navy has been a trustworthy neighbor, employer, defender and partner with the state of California and the citizens of Ventura County.