USS Cole 9"

The second USS Cole (DDG-67) is an Arleigh Burke-class Aegis-equipped guided missile destroyer homeported in NS Norfolk, Virginia. The Cole is named in honor of Marine Sergeant Darrell S. Cole, a machine-gunner killed in action on Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945. The ship was built by Ingalls Shipbuilding and delivered to the Navy on March 11, 1996.

On October 12, 2000, the Cole was damaged by a suicide attack while harbored in the Yemeni port of Aden.

History

On October 12, 2000, while under the command of Commander Kirk Lippold, the Cole was attacked from a small boat by Al-Qaeda suicide bombers while harbored in the Yemeni port of Aden. The blast created a hole in the port side of the ship approximately 40 feet (12 m) in diameter, killing 17 crewmembers and injuring 39.

The U.S. government offered a reward of up to US $5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of those persons who committed or aided in the attack on Cole. On November 4, 2002, Ali Qaed Sinan al-Harthi, who is believed to have planned the attack, was killed by the CIA using an AGM-114 Hellfire missile launched from an MQ-1 Predator unmanned drone.

Cole was returned to the United States aboard the Norwegian semi-submersible heavy-lift MV Blue Marlin owned by Offshore Heavy Transport of Oslo, Norway. The ship was off-loaded December 13, 2000 from Blue Marlin in a pre-dredged deep-water facility at the Pascagoula, Mississippi, shipyard of Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, Ingalls Operations. After 14 months of repair, Cole departed on April 19, 2002, and returned to her homeport of Norfolk, Virginia. Cole left Norfolk on November 29, 2003 on the destroyer's first overseas deployment since the bombing. She returned to homeport of Norfolk, Virginia on May 27, 2004 without incident.

Al-Qaeda, a terrorist group, probably targeted Cole because an earlier attempt to attack USS The Sullivans on January 3, 2000 had failed. This was one of the 2000 millennium attack plots.

The Cole deployed to the Middle East on 8 June 2006 for the first time since the bombing. While passing the port city of Aden the crew manned the rails to honor the crewmembers killed in the bombing. She returned to her homeport of Norfolk, Virginia on December 6, 2006 without incident.

On August 21, 2006, the Associated Press reported that the Cole's commanding officer at the time of the bombing, Commander Kirk Lippold was denied promotion to the rank of Captain.

It was reported in March 2007 that the families of the 17 sailors killed in the blast are heading to court to try to prove the attack could not have happened without the help of Sudan's government. "Sudan's material support ... including continuous flow of funding, money, weapons, logistical support, diplomatic passports and religious blessing, was crucial in enabling the attack on the USS Cole," lawyers for the families said in court papers outlining their case.^] On March 14, 2007 it was reported that U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar said, "There is substantial evidence in this case presented by the expert testimony that the government of Sudan induced the particular bombing of the Cole by virtue of prior actions of the government of Sudan." 

On July 25, 2007, a US court led by Doumar ordered Sudan to pay $8 million compensation to the families of the 17 sailors who died. He calculated the amount they should receive by multiplying the salary of the sailors by the number of years they would have continued to work.

On February 28, 2008, the Cole was sent to take station off Lebanon's coast, the first of an anticipated three-ship flotilla. "The United States believes a show of support is important for regional stability. We are very concerned about the situation in Lebanon. It has dragged on very long," said a top US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity signaling 'impatience' with Syria.